There’s a moment, about two-and-a-half minutes into the title track from Burr Oak‘s new EP, where everything drops out except a nervous, agitated guitar line—then, chaos and an almighty musical roar, coupled with a lurch into half-time for added effect. It’s a most unexpected twist, the entire song hinging around this extreme dynamic shift, and the payoff is nothing short of extraordinary.
That moment is an early highlight on the EP itself, a tightly-wound concept-driven stunner from the Chicago quartet led by Savanna Dickhut, written as a scathing response to the overturning of Roe v. Wade in June of 2022. So say the band of their new single: “‘She had a baby, Annabelle.’ With no money, family to reach out to for help or access to abortion resources, twenty-three-year-old Annabelle is left with no choice other than to have the baby and raise the child without the help of her ex-boyfriend, Adam. Alone, overwhelmed and having to care for a newborn day and night, Annabelle slips deep into postpartum depression.”
The 5-song EP—whose title track we premiere below—is the first new music from the quartet since their 2021 debut Late Bloomer, somewhat fittingly the product of the pandemic forcing them off the road in early 2020; Annabelle arrives on Friday September 20th via Easy Does It.
