We are honoured to bring you an early exclusive listen to the new single ‘Everything You’ from North Arm – essentially the work of Roderick Smith, the Newcastle-raised songwriter. It heralds a new album ‘Stay Young’ due out on 25 October 2025 through through Broken Stone Records/Remote Control Records.
‘Everything You’ floats like a cotton wool cloud in the blue sky – dreamy ethereal instrumentation that bears Smith’s velvet vocals along the slipstream, with faint etchings of mysterious sounds swirling in the ether – perhaps voices – in the distance. This creates a mesmerising melange – something yearning and reflective filled with emotion. It is like Sufjan Stevens and Simon and Garfunkel jamming in the early hours of the morning around a dying embers of a fire, accompanied by Paul Kelly.
A delicate pop sensibility is highlighted by repetition and the aquatic sounds that burble like a stream. Smith says of the themes behind the album from which the track is taken:
During the making of this album we lost two dear family members, my father-in-law Tom and our senior whippet Honey. It hints at those feelings we all have when we have to say goodbye to someone or something, and we have to accept it no matter how hard it is. This is a universal and human experience that we all have in common and I’m glad the song arrived with that to say.
The result is something that North Arm has perfected: tranquility and reflection, a stately beauty in sound:
‘Everything You is out tomorrow (2 October 2024) and available through the link above and via all the usual download and streaming sites.
Feature Photograph: Olive Rush
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