Despite growing up in the digital age, 22-year-old Loren Cole’s songwriting serves to remind us that the most important facets of our life’s work are happening right here in the now, without the frills of social media finagling. This offers a timelessness to her music which, although it doesn’t shy away from all notions of modern production, still manages to cultivate something sincere and memorable. This, in hand, serves her upcoming debut album well enough, all considering its apt title—For the Sake of Being Honest.
For the Sake of Being Honest is out on 24 August. In the meantime, Cole is sharing a single from the album with PopMatters readers. Entitled “Brand New”, this dreamy indie folk tune wraps listeners in a feel-good sort of self-awareness as it reminds us that we are all capable of starting out fresh. Cole’s lilting croon is especially infectious when it’s laid out against the doo wop-esque progression of its ethereal chorus, ferried forward by equally dreamlike instrumentation. It’s a production that feels equal parts glacial and warm, somewhere snugly fit between the likes of other songstresses like Brandi Carlile or Lucy Rose.
“‘Brand New’ is about believing in a fresh start,” says Cole. “Life happens to us all, and some experiences leave us with a few scars, scrapes or bruises we didn’t have before. I think fear has a tendency to take over our sense of possibility and adventure, especially as we age. I wanted to write a song to remind people a clean slate is sometimes as simple as a shift in perspective.”
“The concept came to me while I was doing laundry. I was half-way through college, folding clothes in my apartment, and came across a shirt I’d had since middle school. I started thinking about how much had changed in my life since I brought the shirt home from the store. Some differences were positive, others not so much. I realized my old shirt and people shared a lot of same trajectories: accumulating wear and tear and perhaps losing a bit of the shine and excitement along the way. Sometimes the best ideas come about by doing some pretty mundane tasks!”