The debut album from maeve & quinn – the Chicago/Alaska duo of twin sisters Maris & Bryce O’Tierney – is seriously good and an absolute must for any folk-pop fans, especially since it tips its hat to the likes of Sharon Van Etten, Snail Mail, Maggie Rogers and Big Thief; you know the vibes – not just anyone can carve out their own in niche in a field as crowded as that, but they’re sure as hell going to try, and it’s for that reason they’ve delivered one of the best debuts of 2023.
It’s about 5 weeks until you can hear it, but in the meantime, the pair have shared a new single from the album, directly inspired by the cabin fever and isolation many experienced during the pandemic, but just as easily applicable if one’s stuck in a rut in life – it’s a richly rewarding song called ‘Stuck Inside’ that, fittingly, sticks to a verse-chorus structure until it sharply pivots with an instrumental break and coda, ending up in a place completely different than which it began: “Both the song and the music video [trace] a searching and determined journey to feel less confined by limitations outside of one’s control and feel more expansive with imagination for what one’s life could hold. We began writing ‘Stuck Inside’ late one night in our Chicago apartment in summer 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic; we felt liberated in the shared space of songwriting to address the uncertainty and confusion in the world at the time and to attempt to write toward brighter possibilities. What we do every day becomes a life. With ‘Stuck Inside’ we hope that listeners can find connection to their own process of taking steps, small or big, toward the futures they dream to have.”
We’re premiering the video below; ‘Stuck Inside’ is out tomorrow, and Another Door follows on September 8th.
