Bedbug – “Lilies”

Bedbug – “Lilies”

Bedbug is a Boston-based project marked by hushed intimacy. Their last release, 2016’s If I Got Smaller Grew Wings And Flew Away For Good, was made up of quiet bedroom dispatches that sounded immediate but a little tentative. “Lilies,” the first song we’re hearing from their forthcoming new album I’ll Count To Heaven In Years Without Seasons, seems more open and assured, a mumble of hypnotic words that blossoms at a steady clip. It’s papered from beginning to end with ideas and discursions that feel restlessly poignant. A duality of voices echo back to each other on top of a swirling, hazy beat that mimics the pull of history and memories that grounds the song. It’s part character piece, part (presumably) autobiographical reckoning, part abstract reflection on the overwhelming beauty of nature. Two scenes stick out for me especially: a starry car ride to Vermont that’s cut off by a hindsight revelation (“My cousin died that night but we wouldn’t hear about it ’til morning”) and the muted climax, which feels like someone picking themselves up after a fall and brushing the dirt off their knees to keep on going: “I will get a job again, I’ll stop doing all this teenage shit/ You will never hear from me, but you will be proud of me.” Listen via GoldFlakePaint below.

I’ll Count To Heaven In Years Without Seasons is out 1/19 via Joy Void Recordings. Pre-order it here.

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