Bay Area trio Sour Widows have announced a new EP titled Crossing Over and shared its title track, “Crossing Over.” Paste Magazine, who premiered the track and profiled the band today, is calling it a “dynamic blend of sharp rock riffs and hushed vocal melodies (think Adrianne Lenker fronting Duster), which they control with the ease and ambition of a much more established band.“
With Crossing Over, Sour Widows discover a new intensity by turning inward. The band dials back some of the volume that drove their self-titled 2020 debut EP to make space for themes of self-reflection and painful change that cut through with sharpened clarity. The luminous vocal harmonies, complex guitar interplay, and understated drumming that have been at the core of the band’s sound remain foundational; but these four songs reach deeper, all the more stirring in their subtlety.
Of the song, the band’s Susanna Thomson says: “This one is pretty literally about my experience being in a cross country long distance relationship, and the way it forced me to reckon with choice and sacrifice, make peace with it. I can try my best to have it all, make a time and space for everything it is I value, but at the end of the day, I have to accept the way my life fractures because of how I live it. As long as I’m pursuing what it is I want to do the most, I think I’ll always feel that heightened presence of choice and sacrifice.”
Sour Widows was formed in 2017 by Maia Sinaiko (they/them), Susanna Thomson (she/her), and Max Edelman (he/him). All three had been close since meeting in various phases of childhood, and when they found themselves living in the same area, making music together came naturally. With a musical connection that was an extension of their longtime friendship, the band began fine-tuning a sound that swung from gently glowing harmonizing to energetic bursts of feedback-laced catharsis. After the release of their self-titled EP in February of 2020, the plan was to continue touring and start work on a full-length album. As it did with so many others, the global pandemic abruptly changed plans for Sour Widows. Rather than slow momentum indefinitely while waiting to safely get into a studio, the band decided to work remotely recording new material themselves.
The title track is perhaps the strongest marker of the distinct evolution in sound throughout Crossing Over. The song slowly expands from a subdued two-chord guitar progression into a dynamic, breathing organism, building tension as it winds through an unconventional song structure with aching lyrics centered around a long-distance relationship. It’s a song about the weight of love that sprawls out with the loneliness of an endless highway. Susanna and Maia worked on the song while quarantining together, and the protracted arrangement embodies both the frustrations of physical distance expressed in the lyrics and the strange new ways time felt in 2020.
Sour Widows’ music already drew as equally on sharpness as it did tenderness, but the deliberately spare atmosphere of Crossing Over enhances both. Tempos slow and the instrumentation softens while anxiety and grief crackle through these deceptively opulent songs. The EP represents a new phase of Sour Widows’ artistry, and points to further growth with their soon-to-follow full-length debut. The unique form of this EP documents the band discovering a voice which derives its translucent power from restraint and intentionality.
