There’s something about a no-frills live take that feels like peeling back the last layer when the production gloss is wiped away, and all that’s left is the truth. That is precisely what Avenues are dishing up in their latest single, “Last Quarter (Studio Live),” a gritty, emotionally charged folk-country ballad live from the studio floor.
While the dreamy synth-pop number was penned back in 2017 and shelved from their debut record “Forgotten Notebooks,” “Last Quarter” has been backstage relatively quietly until now. Re-imagined and reworked with a few slight upgrades, it finally makes its inevitable debut as part of Live in Studio, 10/19/2024, resplendent as a moment of catharsis and unabashed delivery.
The song is about the power of keeping things in check. Analog arpeggios overlap over a murky atmosphere, giving the impassioned vocal delivery room to sigh. There’s the slow unspooling of thoughts and feelings long dormant but unprocessed. You feel the song’s weight, the resignation, the mourning of hopes once held, and the echo of questions unsolved.
“Last Quarter” is a quiet repudiation of the immutable, the disillusionment of knowing people won’t change, and the exhaustion of hoping they will. Avenues take this single as a personal release and collective reflection. It’s not a loud sound, but it is sustained. As if dusk were turning to night, the track evokes the moment when hope darkens, not out of cynicism but from exhaustion.
There’s beauty in its minimalism. This is a record of a moment enshrined in the imperfection of the live studio setting, and that is precisely what sets it apart. The clarity of sound, the room’s ambient breath, and the unmediated emotional delivery serve as a reminder of what music can do when it’s left to be real. With “Last Quarter (Studio Live),” Avenues not only revisits a song from the past but also dominates it. By doing that, they’re giving you something hauntingly real about themselves. It’s not flashy or polished, but it’s absolutely human.
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