Indie-Rock Group Clementine Was Right Release “Half of My Heart Is a Runaway Train"
Above: “Half of My Heart Is a Runaway Train” single artwork
CLEMENTINE WAS RIGHT
— INDIE ROCK GROUP LED BY POET MIKE YOUNG —
RELEASE NEW SINGLE
“HALF OF MY HEART IS A RUNAWAY TRAIN”
THEIR SOPHOMORE LP
CAN’T GET RIGHT WITH THE DARKNESS
OUT FRIDAY, MARCH 18
NASHVILLE, TN (February 4, 2022) — Clementine Was Right, the indie rock project led by Denver-based poet and fiction writer Mike Young, have released “Half of My Heart Is a Runaway Train.” The song marks the sophomore single from the band’s forthcoming nine-song album, Can’t Get Right With the Darkness.
Caleb Campbell at Under The Radar raved about the new song, noting that, “at the track’s emotive core is Young’s emphatic confessions, carrying the song forward with cinematic drama...the whole band locks into place with near-effortless chemistry. The band weaves together galloping rhythms, warm honkey-tonk guitars, and sweet three-part harmonies, a marriage of heartland rock and rambling alt-country.”
The band’s frontman, Mike Young, weaves lyrics of restlessness and reverence on “Half of My Heart Is a Runaway Train.” Caleb Campbell at Under The Radar added: “As a songwriter, Young wears his heart on his sleeve at all times, exploring lovestruck angst with Springsteen-esque imagery.”
Chronicling years of uprooting — from Northern California to New England and Alaska to New Mexico — the music gallops and sways through hook-smeared bootgaze, cosmic scoot, harmonizing and storytelling. The outcome? Can’t Get Right With the Darkness, a colorful nine-song collection due out Friday, March 18.
After releasing three books of poems and stories in the early 2010s (with praise from media outlets such as VICE), Young moved to Santa Fe in 2016 and instituted the Clementine Was Right journey with fifteen years of songs. In February 2020, these songs came together as the band’s first LP — Lightning & Regret — featuring a mix of innovative styles and instrumentation, from swirling honky-tonk synths to urgent crunchy guitars and accordions.
In September 2021, Clementine Was Right huddled into Memphis Magnetic Recording in Memphis, TN to record Can’t Get Right With the Darkness. The new record is both grizzlier and more anthemic, weeping and laughing while the fire jumps the river. Recorded straight to a 1969 Ampex tape machine, the new sonic experience takes a smoke break outside the question of retro vs. contemporary, coming back inside with a bootgaze take on Gram Parsons’s infamous “cosmic American music.”
Inspiration for the LP’s title came about as a result of the “deaths of family and friends, grief and abandonment — plenty of darkness to get right with,” discloses Young. “In the end, the album is less about the rest and more about the restlessness.”
Jude Brothers and Lisa Kori join Young for colorful three-part harmonies on momentous choruses and catchy bridges, while Nate Smerage’s guitar lines skate between rhythm and lead, reinventing tasty punk-country licks with the sparkle of 80s New Wave and Springsteen bombast.
Dick Darden decorates the beat like a rhinestone Charlie Watts, and Hayden Johnson’s breezy galumph on bass keeps both joy and desperation close to the heart. Rounding out the room are Alissa Nordmoe’s contemporary winks and sighs on her 1930s lap steel, haunting the songs with ghosts in many moods. Evolving Mike’s distorted synth washes from the first record, Scott McEwen’s mixes keep things warm and clear, letting the stories and harmony-driven hooks shine through.
Can’t Get Right With the Darkness is composed of Mike Young (vocals), Jude Brothers (vocals), Lisa Kori (vocals/ keyboard), Nate Smerage (guitar), Dick Darden (drums), Hayden Johnson (bass), Alissa Nordmoe (steel), and Buck Williams (road guitar).
Above: ‘Can’t Get Right With the Darkness’ album artwork
Track Listing For Can't Get Right With the Darkness:
“Half of My Heart Is a Runaway Train”
“Dreaming of Dancing in a Different Town
“The Blood in Your Face”
“Joe Montana’s Yokel War”
“One to Wander”
“Made Myself a Stranger”
“St. Francis and the Wolves”
“Next Bus Out”
“Can’t Get Right With the Darkness”
Above: Clementine Was Right L to R: Jude Brothers, James Williams, Dick Darden, Alissa Nordmoe, Mike Young, Nate Smerage (standing), and Hayden Johnson (crouching). Credit: Gion Davis