Words by Ursa Gregson
Steve Marion, who is professionally Delicate, hails originally from New Jersey, but it was the adobe-caked streets and devils-breath desert winds of Tucson, Arizona that inspired 'After Hours' following a year spent recharging, barely listening to music, let alone creating it, after an intense spell playing live, recording with or being sampled by such myriad artists as Paul Simon, Black Keys, Mac Demarco and Kanye West. Written and recorded on a 1966 Fender Stratocaster that reignited his love for the instrument, After Hours marks a first for Marion: an earnest, easygoing collection of songs that revel in the simple joys of plugging in and playing.
'Street Breeze' is a simple and sumptuous instrumental track, as Southwestern as a cactus and just as nourishing. A general hazy DIY feel lets the dirt-under-thy-fingernails drawl of the Stratocaster shine, shot with both-sides-of-the-border percussion and a gloriously squeaky saxophone. If I were to reduce myself to comparison and conjecture, which as music journalists we evidently must, then I would utter the words 'garage Khruangbin' and shudder at myself, but que sera sera, and you wanted to hear that anyway. Steve's delicate touch ensures that a tune so simple and unassuming stays with you long into the dusky desert night and carries far over the purple mesas (etc, etc).
“This song captures the feeling of stepping outside your door and onto the street, walking through a city with no destination in mind,” Steve says of the song’s themes. “When you have no destination in mind, you become open to the possibility of ending up anywhere. Usually that ends up being a good thing.”
A gorgeous video directed by Ramona Parrotta accompanies the single. Watch it here.
Pre-Order ‘After Hours’
1. Playing in a Band
3. I Can Fly Away
4. Now I Know
5. Looking Glass
6. Find My Way
7. After Hours
8. Artificial
9. Night Owl
10. Still Life
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