Line & Circle – “Full Disclosure”

Line & Circle – “Full Disclosure”

Almost three years ago, the LA-by-way-of-Ohio band Line & Circle released their debut album Split Figure. For fans of ’80s college rock, it was a small treasure trove of highly memorable songs. The group often wears their influences on their sleeves — singer Brian J. Cohen’s vocals bear an uncanny and uncommon resemblance to a young Michael Stipe’s — but their songwriting was strong enough that many of their compositions easily stand on their own. Split Figure’s impeccable, infectious title track “Roman Ruins” would’ve ranked as one of my favorite songs of 2015 had it not been a single a couple years prior.

Since then, Line & Circle returned with the Vicious Folly EP late last year. There’s still been no word of a sophomore LP, but maybe that will change in the near future considering that Line & Circle are back once more with a new song called “Full Disclosure.”

The release of “Full Disclosure” coincides with Line & Circle embarking on a short tour with, fittingly enough, Peter Buck and Joseph Arthur (under their combined moniker of Arthur Buck). It’s one of over a dozen new songs Line & Circle are working with at the moment, material they’ll be playing on the Arthur Buck dates ahead of recording next month in LA with producer Jake Aron. Here’s what Cohen had to say about the new track:

It’s a song that is certainly born out of deep emotional turmoil — the impossibility of moving on from a relationship when you have absolutely no idea why it ended in the first place. Situations like that can haunt you for a long time, until or unless you find some way to move past it. Sometimes that’s just not possible and it stays with you forever. When you have nothing but speculation to cling to, it can do great damage to the mind and the body.

Line & Circle’s prior work had no shortage of autumnal, melancholic tones, but Cohen’s backstory for “Full Disclosure” gives you a pretty good idea of the territory the band is operating in here. Those cascading, jangling guitars and Cohen’s lightly gritty vocals are still in play, but deployed in a far more wistful capacity. Check it out below.

“Full Disclosure” is out now.

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