A stirring serenade off their third album ‘Good Woman’, The Staves’ tender new single “Devotion” is a soulful and intimate surrender stacked with smoldering harmonies, driving beats, and soaring, seductive melodies.
Stream: “Devotion” – The Staves
And you’re telling me I’m grown – how sweet, life in the backseat…
Devotion: For some it’s a blessing and a strength, while for others it’s a curse – a crutch, a liability. Our loyalty and love can build us up and break us down at a moment’s notice, and it’s this intrinsic magic that makes The Staves’ new single so compelling. A stirring serenade, the tender “Devotion” is a soulful and intimate surrender stacked with smoldering harmonies, driving beats, and soaring melodies.
And it seems you want to hurt me
No matter where I go
There’s a future I can’t know
So how could I know
Now it seems you want to love me
At a future facing down
At a fall thats coming round
And where will I go?
Released January 21, 2021 via Nonesuch / Atlantic Records UK, “Devotion” is the mesmerizing final single off The Staves’ forthcoming third studio album, Good Woman (out February 5). A dramatic and sweeping expression of expressive feeling, “Devotion” follows a recent string of thrilling singles releases: “Satisfied,” “Trying,” and the recent Editor’s Pick “Good Woman” have each highlighted a different side to the English indie folk trio of Emily, Jessica, and Camilla Staveley-Taylor.
“Devotion” finds The Staves diving into a certain special kind of helplessness at the hands – and heart – of another. The band paint a powerful portrait of vulnerability with in the chorus:
And you’re telling me I’m grown
How sweet, life in the backseat
And it’s happening again
And it’s happening again
And you’re carrying me home
How sweet life in the backseat
And it’s happening again
And it’s happening again
Devotion be the death of me…
The Staves’ vivid imagery brings us right into that car alongside them, feeling the intimacy and fragility they so carefully spell out in song.
“This song came from a feeling of being totally at the mercy of someone else,” The Staves say of their new song. “Being a passenger and never a driver in any situation. Being blinded by devotion and unable to navigate the way out.”
I could blow the fucking windows out
Leave them dragging down the road
Your affliction isn’t mine to hold
And how should I know how to?
And you’re telling me I’m grown
How sweet life in the backseat
And it’s happening again
And it’s happening again
And you’re carrying me home
How sweet life in the backseat
And it’s happening again
And it’s happening again
“Devotion be the death of me,” the band sing at the end of each chorus. Their vibrant performance evokes the intensity and importance of the moment as they reckon with a struggle between connection and independence, inner strength and desire: What the heart wants, versus what it needs.
With its visceral passion, deep grooves, and untethered emotion, “Devotion” adds more fuel to the fire as we countdown to Good Woman’s album release.
Dazzling in its own especially intense way, the song is a finessed balance of the band’s charismatic, rawer indie folk acoustic stylings, and the heavier electric work they have engaged with in recent years. Arriving with less than a month before The Staves’ highly anticipated LP, it’s an exciting final sneak peak at The Staves’ new music before they unleash what will become their first album in six years. While fans are all eager to hear Good Woman in its entirety, “Devotion” gives everyone something beautiful to cherish as they start the two-week countdown.
Good Woman is out February 5.
Don’t you deal me no favours
Don’t you sell me no line
I’ll call you back when I’m sober
Or at some other time
Well I’m right here beside you
But its never alright
And I’m no winner
I’m no winner
I’m no winner
I’m no winner
Blazing and strong
I’ve been awake too long…
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Stream: “Devotion” – The Staves
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