Peach Pit tease the direction they’re headed in for their fourth album ‘Magpie’ with new single “Did You Love Somebody,” a track that explores past hardships in romance and how they manifest in the present.
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Stream: “Did You Love Somebody” – Peach Pit
Ever since Vancouver’s Peach Pit dropped their first EP, Sweet FA, in 2018, they’ve been curating what has now become their signature sound.
It’s one that many have come to know as a distinct tone that displays the quartet’s moving lyricism, fantastic indie rock melodies, and more recently some notable country influences. In their latest single, “Did You Love Somebody,” Peach Pit present fans with a glimpse of where they’re headed with their next record, Magpie, a project that may shape up to merge the band’s indie rock roots with the influences they began exploring on their last album, From 2 to 3. “Did You Love Somebody” further solidifies this album’s positioning as a deeply retrospective, contemplative record with its examination of past lovers and the impacts they leave in their wake.
In lead vocalist Neil Smith’s words, Magpie represents, “this character – a person that represented the left turn I could’ve taken in my life… he represented the worst-case scenario if I hadn’t stopped drinking and partying… It all depends on which road you take.”
Peach Pit have always had a distinct talent for crafting some truly poignant lyrics. What makes this ability of theirs even more impressive is Smith’s buttery smooth voice and the rest of the band’s mastery over their respective instruments. This much was true on the lead single and title track they released to promote Magpie, a more frenetic, fast-paced track, but they’re able to maintain the same qualities on slower moments like “Did You Love Somebody.” The track is an introspection into the ways in which we’ve loved in the past, whether that be for the thrill of it all or for the brief moments of relief that it can bring.
Smith says, “I’m in a relationship now and this song is from one lover to another asking, ‘Did you love somebody before me?’ It’s about that curiosity that sometimes creeps in, and can develop into insecurities. Who were the people that they loved before you? Are they experiencing this for the first time?”
Did you love somebody only just for the rush like me?
Did you fear the hand you hold had let go?
Right as you finish saying
Peach Pit are no strangers to putting out tracks that expertly dissect the complexities of romance, and “Did You Love Somebody” is no different.
This track in specific artfully dissects the nuances that come with trying to understand where a new partner’s heart has landed before it came into your own hands and if they too had made regretful mistakes in love.
The vulnerability in admitting something that is so incredibly natural and human, but perhaps can feel shameful or embarrassing to actually admit, is what makes Peach Pit’s songs and lyrics so compelling and moving.
In the moments on your own
Did you beg that love would take you home?
Did you see how your love could be
And decide to hell, that’s enough for me?
Did you love somebody for to make,
your mistake, your fool?
Did you feel a pale wind blow past you so?
Right as you finish saying
What helps to bring the messaging of this track straight to the heart is the band’s instrumentation, those sounds telling a story all on their own.
A mix of guitar, bass, and drums from band members Christopher Vanderkooy, Peter Wilton, and Mikey Pascuzzi serve to complement that emotional backbone of the song. Their instrumentation always feels so intentional, never having drums come in too early and rampant or having an overlap of guitar chords sound chaotic. The first half of the track is fairly quiet, primarily consisting of Smith’s vocals and some stripped back guitar chords, where the second half sees all bandmates working their magic together, perhaps to emulate what it feels like to sit in this complex emotional state the song chronicles.
The last 30 seconds of “Did You Love Somebody” pulls in the country twang that they’ve been exploring in their more recent work, a sound that adds a hopeful sort of tone to a topic that may have seemed overly somber without additions like these.
What results is a track that helps listeners to understand that Magpie is a special record for the band, and one that will chronicle some undoubtedly pivotal moments and emotions of the human experience: “Magpie symbolizes the heartbreak that led to many of the songs we were writing, as well as the new love that inspired the others. The year it had taken to make Magpie had been full of ups and downs – constantly changing and leaving the good for the bad and the bad for the good, just like the songs on the record.”
“Did You Love Somebody” is the second single released to promote Peach Pit’s new album Magpie, releasing on October 25th via Columbia Records. You can listen to the album’s first two singles on all streaming platforms.
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:: stream/purchase Did You Love Somebody here ::
:: stream/purchase Magpie here ::
:: connect with Peach Pit here ::
Stream: “Did You Love Somebody” – Peach Pit
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© Mackenzie Walker
© Mackenzie Walker
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