Psych-pop duo pecq release brooding third single, “Lemon Cake,” from their freshly released debut EP Stranger.
Having already released two singles under their new guise of pecq, duo Hannah (Jakes) Jacob and Nikò O’Brien have returned with a third offering, this time about eating cake and ruminating over whether to leave someone.
Of the track, Jakes commented: “It was written one night super late at the studio. I had these guitar loops and bits of the chorus Nikò had made earlier and I was just in this dark, restless mood. Out came this song about lying awake eating cake in bed, talking yourself in and out of leaving the person sleeping next to you.”
Whilst on a surface level, this may sound absurd or flippant, it’s often in these quiet moments that we really question our surroundings; the ways in which we interact with people and how we truly feel about them can be best explored over a restless night, the quiet of the outside world and, well, cake.
“Lemon Cake” explores just this through glitchy, repetitive guitar riffs, and Jakes’s haunting voice layered atop. The track almost exists in the liminal space between sleeping and waking, a state where your mind can truly be free to wander and your truest feelings are realized.
The simplistic and frank lyrics of “Lemon Cake” draw a thoughtful symbiosis between insomnia and the breakdown of a relationship. Whilst the partner lies sleeping, unaware of the mental state of their awake counterpart, Jakes is left free to explore these feelings. They fester and warp as the track goes on, the guitar becoming more ominous with an almost mournful edge at the halfway mark.
The accompanying self directed video sees Jakes doing exactly as you’d expect; eating some lemon cake whilst pondering the possibility – or lack thereof – of continuing in a relationship with her partner.
There’s a wonderful balance struck between sincerity, the surreal and the sombre as Nikò O’Brien stirs some lemon cake mix in a bowl in such a way that it seems almost nightmarish, unsettling in its monotony and strange stillness. Who knew that “Lemon Cake” could be so haunting and thought provoking.
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