Let the Cold Light In

Mock Deer

Single

30 Apr, 2021

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Transfixingly crushing, cinematically resonant, alt-indie folk.

— AnR Factory

Tracks

Let The Cold Light In3:15

Mock Deer follows up his 2020 debut The Art of Loneliness this Spring with a new standalone single: Let the Cold Light In.

Trapped in London by a global pandemic and unable to fulfil the touring schedule booked to promote the record, a return to the studio seemed the only way to maintain the hard-won creative momentum of the project (The Art of Loneliness followed a 4-year hiatus for Mock Deer). The result – a deeply reflective 3.5 minutes of melancholic alt-rock – showcases the expansive style of a mature Mock Deer.

Where early releases followed perhaps more expected stylistic paths in Americana and alt-folk, the album – and this new single in particular – attest to an artist not only familiar with their medium but steeped in its literature. Subtly layered with electronics and samples, the textures of the song remind us of John Grant or Nick Cave.

Maturity is on the cards lyrically too: “Pass the oils that will rouse my fire within/Hand the key, unlock my stiffening limbs” he sings as he faces the physical changes of ageing through the distorting microscope of confinement and comes up proud. The song invites us to question the increasingly accepted idea that we should never be any less than “okay”.

We feel the weight of elemental forces on both singer and writer, as a vocal that sounds close to defeat at times sings “Cloud formations command the open country, like a master of emotional sensation and a tyrant of disaster”. It isn’t hard to read a parallel with the pandemic that has done its best to lay us all low, but it would be a mistake to assume the subject is so specific. What Mock Deer really hits us with here is the way so many of the things we feel are particular to the now have been with us all along.

Credits