Confuse-Ray has good single artwork. The project, helmed by Umeå’s Elmer Hallsby, released a debut single earlier this year, Quarterly Projections, a late Interpol-ish moody guitar song that was housed in a white sleeve with the simple word MUSIC lettered in white on a blue box, with Confuse-Ray and the song title slipped in smaller text underneath. There’s a nice, aesthetically pleasing simplicity to it, and it’s a formula he’s kept for his next single Headlights, which we’re happy to be premiering for you today.
Confuse-Ray doesn’t just make good single artwork though – he’s got a way with music too. Headlights is slower and heavier than its predecessor single, a song that’s got a gut-punching, weighty guitar drawl that gives it a chugging, driving power. That weight drips into the song’s mood, which matches its subject matter, a bleak romance that burns fast before snuffing out miserably. Headlights shows that Hallsby can paint and sell that scene well – here he’s made a hard-rolling, growling rock song.
Hallsby says:
Headlights is a Rock song about failed romance, based on a true story. About the first weeks of what could have been something but when both parties are kind of too messed up to make things work. The first verse is in the beginning, when everything is so intense and you’re totally blind to any warning signs. The second one is about the process of realising that things are probably not gonna go well. The second of four singles this spring, a bit more ‘pop’ than the first one. I think this one and the first one complement each other well. I hope you enjoy it!
Headlights is out on May 9 on Lazy Octopus. Confuse-Ray will release a full EP later this year.