The new single from the artist, named for a tarot card, is a first listen from the upcoming EP
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The year is 2002. I’m wearing a shirt with a double entendre I def don’t understand that I dug out of the Abercrombie clearance pile while choking on secondhand Fierce. I’m sitting in third-period Spanish, when my crush, John A. (not to be confused with John W.), comes up to me and says he (OMG!) has something to tell me later.
Fast-forward to sixth-period English. After spending all day awaiting the moment when the love of my seventh-grade life would tell me he likes me back—a relationship we’d consummate by recruiting one of our moms to take us to the mall to eat Wetzels Pretzels and watch whatever Fast and the Furious movie came out 20 years ago—he pulls me aside with a serious face just before the bell rings to finally reveal that he likes…
My friend, Haley. Sonofabitch.
That’s obviously a silly example (it was seventh grade), but to some degree, we’ve all been there: when the person you kinda like/maybe love/are perhaps a tad infatuated with has those same feelings… but for someone else entirely. Whether it’s a coupled-up crush who doesn’t know you exist or an ex who’s moved on to their next relationship while you’re still staring at old photos and smelling their old t-shirts, it’s a universally relatable feeling that simply, shall we say, sucks.
But at least some good music often comes out of it.
Enter: Endearments. While “Anica”—the last single from Kevin Marksson’s dream-pop project—was “about the moment when you realize that you love someone, and they love you back,” the newest track is about a more lopsided, less reciprocated, far more painful love, and it’s one that I’m just as stoked to premiere here.
From Endearments, this is “Ocean.”
Beyond the classic love-triangle type concept and despite the undeniably dance-y nature of “Ocean,” there’s also a darker theme explored in the track—one of an uncontrollable, almost self-destructive desire—and ahead of the release, the artist offered some insight on the new song and the origin of its title over email:
“I wanted to associate a tarot card with each of the songs on the new EP and the one I chose for ‘Ocean’ is The Moon. It’s a card that represents instability and hidden things. On the surface, ‘Ocean’ is a song about watching someone you love fall for someone else, but when you dig deeper, it’s really a song about being trapped in the pull that someone exerts on you—and drowning in it.”
“Ocean” is the first single from Endearments’ forthcoming EP Father of Wands, which also takes its title from a tarot card—in this case, one that the artist pulled during a rough breakup in 2019. For Kevin, this card represents “a dream-figure whose open heart guides him through conflict into a place of healing,” and offers a hint at the range of themes we’ll see explored on the record, which drops November 5th.
In the meantime, you can catch Endearments with Fair Visions and Lukka at Berlin on October 7th (tickets here). See you there—
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You can pre-order Father of Wands here.
Follow Endearments at @endearmnts, grab the music on Bandcamp and add the songs to your Spotify playlists!
Feature image provided by the artist.