Shannon McArdle‘s third solo album, A Touch of Class, arrives August 24. The first single, “Grand Execution” reveals that everything we love about McArdle remains intact a decade on from her first LP, The Summer of the Whore. She has a willingness to tell the truth through pain, a singing voice that alternately seems ethereally and all too human, an ability to make her case with economy and knowing in a way that is familiar but never trite.
McArdle says that the song explores the “absurdity of security”, adding, “It was inspired in large part by the loss of someone I loved deeply a couple years ago. I suppose it’s an exploration of that desperation we feel in attempts to hold on to that which makes us feel we’re not alone. I question if I’m not complicit in the execution of many of my most profound losses.”