Steve Queralt, the legendary bassist for Ride, starts a new chapter with his first solo album,” Swallow,” due on June 13, 2025. Providing the first glimpse into this odyssey, Queralt shares “Lonely Town,” a ghost glow of a song featuring Emma Anderson that sounds like a nocturnal drive through a city with half-sleep at the wheel, unsettling yet palpably magnetic.
Co-written by Queralt and Anderson, “Lonely Town” is a hypnotic mix of post-punk gloom and dream-pop synths. Connotative of Joy Division’s walking basslines, Queralt’s basslines pulsate a thick, brooding tempo that keeps momentum to the track. The song’s mood is calm and cinematic, with an air of quiet desire, and Anderson’s airy voice floats above the sound. Her voice echoes the synth melody in the chorus, imparting a ghostly, almost hallucinatory quality to the track.
That’s only the bridge where the magic occurs. Queralt dubs it the standout moment where Anderson’s vocals veer into a rich timbre, new textures, and emotions layered over one another, taking the song past its original configuration. These additional vocal ideas were so compelling that the duo ventured back into the studio to capture them, leaving no piece of inspiration behind.
“Lonely Town” is an experience, a walk down a foggy, neon-lit dream where each note lingers in the air. As an introduction to “Swallow,” it befits an album with a lot of it to hand in terms of sheen, memory, and cosmology. With its hypnotic bass, rich layers of synths, and spellbinding vocals from Anderson, it lingers long after the last note dissipates.
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