A soul-stirring ballad that aches from the inside out, Bear’s Den’s “Loneliness” is a breathtakingly beautiful and bittersweet expression of raw, unfiltered humanity taken off the indie folk band’s new EP, ‘White Magnolias.’
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Stream: “Loneliness” – Bear’s Den
As the waves turn to thunder, you look for a rock that could hold you up. And as you get close, you realise that you’re all that rock has got…
It all started with a prompt – a line from another song:
“I wanna know what loneliness is.”
It was a question called into the dark, and Bear’s Den’s Andrew Davie picked up the other line. We’ve all felt lonely from time to time, but the UK indie folk band articulate the depth of that experience with tenderness, sincerity, and refreshing vulnerability. A soul-stirring ballad that aches from the inside out, “Loneliness” is a breathtakingly beautiful and bittersweet expression of raw, unfiltered humanity.
It won’t let you down easy
It’ll let you down with
lead weights pulling either side
And as you fall under
You’ll be fighting for breath with all you’ve got
As you fall & you flounder
Calling for help won’t help you none
You sink into the song
Like a fire drowning in a setting sun
For ten years now, Bear’s Den have exposed our ears and hearts to some of life’s darkest and most difficult moments through warm music that hits hard and leaves a lasting mark. Sad songs have, by and large, been their forte as Andrew Davie, together with Kev Jones (and touring bandmates Christof van der Ven and Jools Owen) explored the furthest reaches of grief, depression, love, and our endless search for meaning, purpose, and connection.
And yet, never has the prompt felt quite as obvious, or the response as direct, as it does with “Loneliness.”
Released August 30, 2023 via Communion, the lead single off Bear’s Den’s new EP White Magnolias (out November 10) sends shivers down the spine as the band capture an invisible, intimate weight with delicate grace:
You wanna know what it is?
Love taught me what loneliness is
It taught me how to forgive what
No one should make you
ever really have to forgive
And we all fall behind, from time to time
And say “I thought that I was over all of this”
“‘Loneliness’ was actually written for a side project idea that never fully materialised, and I wasn’t sure the song would work within the Bear’s Den framework given that it was one of my first songs I’d written on piano, but it turned out to be a lot of fun to work on,” Andrew Davie tells Atwood Magazine. “The lyrics were inspired by a friend of ours called Bennie Curnow, who’s an incredibly talented artist in multiple different disciplines. His photography is just beautiful, – he actually took all the photos for the Blue Hours album, but he’s also one of our favourite songwriters too.”
“He’d written some lyrics for a project we were both involved in, and the chorus of his song had a lyric that went: ‘I wanna know what loneliness is.’ I read his words and immediately started writing this song as a kind of reply to his lyrics. I’ve always liked the idea of a song being in communication with another song, book, or movie. It’s quite a fun way of approaching writing.”
“This is perhaps one of the bandiest approaches we’ve taken in the studio – and again Kev’s bass is magic, Jools and Christof bring so much too. Marcus Hamblett’s horn ideas are also fantastic. I have to thank Ian for his patience and support in the studio at Rockfield. He really pushed me on the piano which is very far from being my first instrument so I’d like to thank him for his patience.”
If I should call your name
Would you hear me out at all?
If I should call your name
Would you hear me out at all?
Heartrending and cathartic all at once, “Loneliness” is a poetic unburdening of painful, heavy emotion.
Davie strikes a particularly poignant in the track’s second verse: “As the waves turn to thunder, you look for a rock that could hold you up. And as you get close, you realise that you’re all that rock has got.” He paints a moving reflection on what it means to love someone else, and to be loved by someone for whom you truly are their everything. There’s a different kind of responsibility that comes with that sort of relationship, and while he leaves much to the imagination, he nevertheless leaves us with a pounding – and an aching – in our chests.
As the waves turn to thunder
You look for a rock that could hold you up
And as you get close
You realise that you’re all that rock has got
You wanna know what it is?
Love taught me what Loneliness is
It taught me how to forgive what
No one should make you – ever really have to forgive
And we all fall behind, from time to time
And say “I thought that I was over all of this”
Out November 10, White Magnolias will be Bear’s Den’ second EP release of the year, following this past June’s First Loves. “White Magnolias really is a part 2 to First Loves,” Davie explains. “Almost like an older version of the same person speaking in the first EP. On a songwriting level, I feel these are some of the most intimate songs I’ve ever written, and though at times there is a bitterness there, I think overall it’s still a very hopeful and honest record.”
Given the records’ relationship, it comes as no surprise that they are being released together on vinyl as one LP: First Loves & White Magnolias will be available to purchase via Bear’s Den’s website, bearsdenmusic.co.uk. Alongside “Loneliness,” the new record will include the recently released “Honest Mistake” and two new songs, “White Magnolias” and “Imitation.”
Together, these tracks capture a piece of our shared human experience – evoking the profound beauty and the burden of being alive. Each song is wondrous and enchanting in its own right, and yet “Loneliness” stands out as a particularly powerful expression of that unabating ache – the one we carry with us throughout our days.
You wanna know what it is?
Love taught me what Loneliness is
It taught me how to forgive what
No one should make you – ever really have to forgive
And we all fall behind, from time to time
And say “I thought that I was over all of this”
And it is what it is
Love taught me what Loneliness is
It taught me how to forgive what
No one should make you – ever really have to forgive
And we all fall behind, from time to time
And say “I thought that I was over this shit
But I’m not”
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Stream: “Loneliness” – Bear’s Den
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