Tender and turbulent, UK dreampop duo Amethysts’ “Bloodline” is a moody, brooding, and achingly beautiful reflection on identity, change, and life itself.
Stream: “Bloodline” – Amethysts
Living in the transition from who you used to be, to who you are now after entering parenthood for the first time.
Amethysts’ latest offering is a song not just for the dreamers, but for the dwellers in all of us:
That raw part of our beings that soaks up emotions like sponges do water, absorbing and immersing the mind, body, and soul in a world of intimate, intense feeling. Tender and turbulent, “Bloodline” is a moody, brooding, and achingly beautiful reflection on identity, change, and life itself.
Standing on the sideline
Gave me a bloodline
Scared to fall behind
But living on my time
Standing on a wave now
Watch me wash away somehow
I get this feeling
I’m on the edge of everything
I’m disappearing
But I would do it all again
Atwood Magazine is proud to be premiering “Bloodline,” the lead single taken off Amethysts’ forthcoming EP, New Moon (out later this year). A longtime favorite of these pages, the Suffolk, UK-based duo of Simon Lucas-Hughes and Clarice Parrott have been a reliable source of hypnotic dreampop since the mid-2010s. Their self-titled debut album, released in 2021, remains a radiant soundtrack for both escape and indulgence.
Following a “deluxe extended edition” of that record in 2022, “Bloodline” represents the first proper bit of new music the duo have put forth in over a year – and what a way to return: Produced by Alex Gordon (The Cure, Bat For Lashes) and mastered by Tom Stanford, “Bloodline” finds Amethysts capturing life’s grey areas – whether two eras overlap, but you can’t quite tell where one has ended and another has begun.
We all know about the circle of life, but those natural cycles that may seem so obvious (and make so much sense) from far away tend to confound us when we’re in the thick of it all. Add to that a set of ethereal vocals, a bevy of shoegaze-influenced guitars, pulsing drums, and a heavy swathe of sub bass and synth, and you’ve got a musical moment of reflection and inner reckoning.
It’s always on my mind
The things we can’t define
The light that I can’t shine
The fault in my design
Standing on a wave now
(It’s always on my mind)
I still feel the same somehow
Amethysts describe their new single as “living in the transition from who you used to be, to who you are now after entering parenthood for the first time.”
“’Bloodline’ is about the journey where you slowly start to find yourself again, and realise the old you is now an enhanced and strengthened version of the person you used to be, thanks to such a small, innocent, but powerful little human being,” the pair explain. “And despite the challenges and conflicts with yourself along the way, you’d happily do it all again.”
I get this feeling
I’m on the edge of everything
I’m disappearing
But I would do it all again
It’s clear that, for Amethysts, the creation of a “bloodline” – of bringing new life into this world, which is at once a part of you and yet wholly distinct from you – has forever changed their outlook on themselves and where they fit into this world. There’s a sense of loss – “I’m on the edge of everything; I’m disappearing…” – and yet, what might be taken as a lament to some is more like an acknowledgement: An acceptance that we are forever fluid, changing bodies, and that we are not alone in controlling our destinies or fates.
In fact, this writer would go so far as to say that “Bloodline” embraces that fluidity. “I would do it all again,” the pair resolve, adamant that, while they feel the waves washing over them and pushing them forward into the unknown, they won’t look back in anger or sadness. “It’s always on my mind, the things we can’t define.“
Join Amethysts and dwell in the deep end of the spectral realm: The video for “Bloodline” is streaming exclusively on Atwood Magazine!
(It’s always on my mind)
(The things we can’t define)
(It’s always on my mind)
(The things we can’t define)
(It’s always on my mind)
(Gave me a bloodline)
(It’s always on my mind)
(Gave me a bloodline)
(It’s always on my mind)
(It’s always on my mind)
(Gave me a bloodline)
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Stream: “Bloodline” – Amethysts
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