Skip a Sinking Stone, Mutual Benefit’s follow-up to 2013 debut Love’s Crushing Diamond, is looking more promising than ever. After releasing single “Not For Nothing” and sharing track “Lost Dreamers”, Jordan Lee’s indie baroque project just scored a hat trick with his latest song, “The Hereafter”.
Skip a Sinking Stone came from a variety of creative sources and inspirations. Lee used this record as a means of reifying his discovery of the world around him, anger at racial injustice in North America, and the breakdown of his relationship. Though contrasting, these elements come together to create raw and unfiltered emotion, and this is certainly not absent from “The Hereafter”.
The fuzzy crackle hidden in the background of the track immediately draws images of playing vinyl on a record player, almost signifying a wish for simpler times. Lee’s demure voice strains with sadness as he gently opens the song with, “What’s to say/ When we break in our skin?” We most commonly use “heartbreak” to describe how we feel upon dissolving a romantic relationship, but Lee’s lyrics redefine that overwhelming emotional pain as something that spreads throughout our whole body. As other elements of double vocal tracking and synths layer over the opening piano, what Lee creates is a lush and vast-sounding soundscape that’s rooted in subtlety. Sometimes less really is more.
Listen to the track via Soundcloud below.
Mutual Benefit’s sophomore record, Skip a Sinking Stone is set to drop on May 20th. Pre-order it via Bandcamp here.
