Soot Sprite – Alone Not Lonely (Specialist Subject)
Growing from a one-woman lo-fi bedroom project to fully fledged band with a polished indie rock sound Soot Sprite announced new EP Poltergeists with single Alone Not Lonely.
Artist: Soot Sprite
Track: Alone Not Lonely
Label: Specialist Subject
Released: 8 September 2021
Find it: Soundcloud | Bandcamp
Starting off as the lofi bedroom-pop project of Elise Cook over the last few years and releases Soot Sprite has grown into a fully fledged band (with the additions of Tom Gilbert and Sean Mariner), and polished up the indie rock sound.
On latest single Alone Not Lonely – which comes ahead of EP Poltergeists – we hear the band’s burgeoning confidence, the rounding of their sound, and the reflection of their inner growth in lyrics full of self-worth.
While they have previously highlighted their shoegaze influences here we get and evolution of emo. There’s no inward-looking pity parties to be found, but the glossy production, soaring pop, and nods back through indie rock are all there making for a track which is uplifting hinting toward anthemic.
‘Ticking off lifetime goals / don’t need someone else to feel whole’
Vocalist Elise Cook said of the track, “This was one of those epiphany moments, where I realised that alone I was not only okay, but I was thriving, and it wasn’t down to anyone else except myself. It was that realisation of self-love and owning my accomplishments in life. It came out in this form of pure joy that I needed to put into song.”
Bringing a My Sharona-esque bump to the riff and an all empowering sense to the vocals, the single positively glows with confidence, and the self-worth which comes from knowing you don’t need a significant other to achieve, to validate, to strive. It’s polished and BIG in the way the best indie rock is, and leads into an EP which wonderfully promises more of the same.
Alone Not Lonely by Soot Sprite is out now digitally via Specialist Subject. EP Poltergeists is set to follow on 29 October 2021, and a short run of tour dates is planned for late November / early December.
Find Soot Sprite: Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Bandcamp
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Sarah Lay
A long-standing music journalist she's also co-founder of independent record label Reckless Yes, an author of novels, and when not messing around with words and music, a digital strategist.
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