Nashville band Roanoke honor past and present through their irresistible anthem “Back Again,” taking indie rock and Americana on a drive through the Laurel Canyon for a spirited, charming, and nostalgia-soaked eruption.
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Stream: “Back Again” – Roanoke
You’d be forgiven for thinking “Back Again” was the next single from Daisy Jones & the Six – some sneak-peak at season two, or a long-lost B-side off the fictional band’s debut album, AURORA.
The truth is, quite frankly, even better: Blending classic rock sounds of the ’70s and ’80s with their own mystic modern flare, Nashville’s Roanoke are the real deal: Americana meets the Laurel Canyon in this 21st Century indie rock band, and nowhere does that melting pot of influences shine brighter than on “Back Again,” Roanoke’s spirited, nostalgia-soaked eruption.
Years ago, ten or so
I hardly remember
Wild and blue me and you
Burning like an ember
There were flowers in your hair
The air was hard to breath
I wonder when’s the last time that you thought of me
Your eyes they look just like the sunrise
Goodbye is thunder in the night sky
I’m going back again
I’m going back again
Released November 7, 2023 via Kill Rock Stars Nashville, “Back Again” is an impassioned eruption of soaring vocal harmonies and scorched emotion from one of Tennessee’s most consistently exhilarating acts: Active since 2016, Roanoke currently consists of frontwoman Taylor Dupuis on vocals, Joey Beesley on vocals and electric guitar, Richard Bennett on bass, vocals and keyboard, B.L. Reed on electric lead guitar, and Justin Holder on drums and percussion.
Previously featured on Atwood Magazine for such singles as 2018’s “Silent Films” and 2019’s “Where the Heart Runs” – as well as 2022’s enchanting Wolf Motel EP, a stunning soft rock reverie we praised as “a breathtaking, intimate record full of passion and nostalgia, dreams and longing that promises to soothe the heart and stir the soul at the very same time” – Roanoke are without a doubt one of 2024’s most electrifying artists to watch. “Back Again” was the band’s one and only single of 2023, and their first original release following the Wolf Motel EP; the months in-between saw Taylor Dupuis releasing a smattering of singles for her indie pop-leaning solo project Lovetta, also signed to KRS Nashville.
Speaking to Americana Highways about the new Roanoke release, co-vocalist and guitarist Joey Beesley explained how the single represented a full-circle connection with the hook-driven rock n’ roll he and Dupuis grew listening to. “Though we do plan to continue our journey into lo-fi indie rock, ‘Back Again’ is a hard look into the past which brought us to where we are as a band,” he explained “We took a deep dive on this one, and the growing experienced during the recording of ‘Back Again’ is equal to the experiences touched on lyrically.”
Traced the lines while you traced mine
Played the fool while you kept time
But in a way no in my mind
You were always the best I’d find
You were dancing in the rain always so hard to see
I wonder when’s the last time that you thought of me.
Your eyes they look just like the sunrise
Goodbye is thunder in the night sky
I’m going back again
I’m going back again
Building from catchy, churning verses up to all-consuming, soul-soaked and cinematic choruses, “Back Again” is an uplifting, achingly emotive singalong ready to be belted onstage and from the rafters.
“It touches on many life lessons, but I’d say that the main message is that nostalgia comes with a wide spectrum of emotion, and goodbyes feel important in the moment but eventually fade into the past,” Beesley tells Atwood Magazine. “‘Back Again’ was inspired by the love and hate relationship that we all have with nostalgia, and how it’s more of an experience rather than emotion. If life had its own cocktail menu, nostalgia would be among the strongest and most complex.”
It wasn’t the first time it wasn’t the last
Never a long ride it happened too fast
Your eyes they look just like the sunrise
Goodbye is thunder in the night sky
I’m going back again
I’m going back again
I’m always going back
There’s thunder in the night
Always going back again.
Embracing guitar-fueled walls of sound and delicious, impassioned multi-part harmonies, Roanoke themselves create something that is at once nostalgic and fresh:
A piece of the past, calling to mind bands like Fleetwood Mac and, for better or worse, the Fleetwood Mac-inspired fictional band Daisy Jones and the Six, as well as a part of the present: High energy, pristinely produced, up-close and personal, yet anthemic all the same; a stadium-sized eruption with the power to knock you off your feet, take your breath away, break you down, and build you back stronger than ever.
To say that Roanoke themselves are back again would be a tremendous understatement (considering the band haven’t really gone anywhere), but all we can do is sit here and hope that 2024 is rightfully their year.
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Stream: “Back Again” – Roanoke
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© John Florentino
© John Florentino
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