Hear Waxahatchee’s Sweet New Saint Cloud Single, “Can’t Do Much”

These are dark times, but we at least have a new Waxahatchee record to look forward to: Katie Crutchfield’s Saint Cloud is out next Friday, March 27, coronavirus be damned, and today (March 16) brings our latest preview of the album, honky-tonk love song “Can’t Do Much.”

“This was the first song I wrote in this batch of songs, and I’ve been performing it live for almost two years. It’s meant to be an extremely unsentimental love song, a love song with a strong dose of reality,” Crutchfield explains in a statement. “It was written early on in a relationship, where the feelings were super intense, but also fear or apprehension were sort of keeping me from totally relaxing in it yet. Sort of like ‘it’s annoying that I love you so much’—totally unromantic, which sort of makes it really romantic to me.”

It may not be sentimental, per se, but “Can’t Do Much” is tupelo honey-sweet: Crutchfield croons, “I want you all the time / Sanity, nullified,” as if stating a fact, rather than expressing her feelings, yet the song is all the more romantic for it. Twang-tinged guitars and trebly chords take a backseat to Crutchfield’s wonderful voice, which conveys the song’s ample emotional vulnerability as well as all the confidence and clarity of a church bell.

“Can’t Do Much” is the third advance track from Saint Cloud, following resolute lead single “Fire” and last month’s lovely “Lilacs.” All of the above have only continued to stoke our excitement about Crutchfield’s forthcoming album, one of Paste’s most-anticipated releases of the month.

Watch the “Can’t Do Much” video (dir. Anna Powell Teeter & The Saint Cloud Band) below. You can preorder Saint Cloud right here.