Haint Blue - "Another Year"

Photo by Rachel Verhaaren

"Another Year," the latest single from Haint Blue, is a powerful alt-folk song that is going to draw virtually all of our readers in. The song builds painfully slowly, starting off with just a quiet piano and drums. Oh, and then you'll notice this intense noise filling up the background. It's not quite feedback, but it's definitely the folk version of feedback brought in to amp up tension like this is a horror movie. The song slowly adds instruments and just keeps getting bigger and bigger until it just overflows with singer Mike Cohn's absurdly powerful voice exploding into your brain. All of this sounds like a painful, uncomfortable listen, and it is. But it's also incredibly gorgeous and somehow mainstream enough to possibly go huge. And then, just when you need the song to bring you somewhere safe, it just ends. Cohn says of "Another Year": There's a lot of rage/frustration in the song, the kind of frustration any adult feels when they grow up and realize that life's not going to be what they thought it would be (and that it has a habit of getting away from you). But there's also this softer, sadder, almost humorously self-aware part of it, too. That's why I like the song so much, it's a great (accidental) allegory to growing up."

We can't recommend this song enough.

You can watch the video for "Another Year" below. Haint Blue's new album, Overgrown, will be out on February 15. You can order a copy here. For more on Haint Blue, check out their website. Their current tour dates are below the video.

02/22 – New Deal Cafe – Greenbelt, MD

02/23 – Frozen Harbor Festival – Baltimore MD

03/04 – 49 West – Annapolis, MD

03/08 – Dante’s – Frostburg, MD

03/15 – Metro Gallery – Baltimore, MD (Album Release Show)

03/22 – Villain & Saint – Bethesda, MD

03/23 – Front Royal Brewery – Front Royal VA