The Singles Bar: Rookin brood on relationship’s potency on ‘If I Didn’t Know You by Now’
The Brooklyn Americana band explore a relationship with a new album cut.
Welcome to The Singles Bar, a review series focused on new single and song releases.
Almost in spite of rapidly scroll social feeds and the echoing fuzz of black mirrors, human connection is as mighty and muscular as ever before. The electrical shocks we feel when we truly and wholeheartedly link up with someone is intoxicating and can be so hyper-charged to completely send our emotions into a state of frenzy. Americana band Rookin attempt to engage with those deeply embedded emotions with a hushed, pastel poeticism. “If I Didn’t Know You by Now” sees frontman Adam Horn take our hands in his and guide us through the darkness, the sun’s porcelain rays caressing our checks and casting a muted grey around the blurred edges.
“So, if I go to my home, echoing / Flash before the places I have seen,” Horn strikes out in brooding tones, the production devouring his body. “I hope to find you waiting there / Wherever this may lead / I’d have packed it up and turned around.” The instruments gurgle in unison, tumbling down the mountainside in clear, cool murmurs. The Brooklyn group is rounded out with a talented crop of musicians, including Benjamin Naddaff-Hafrey (guitar), Parsa Kamali (guitar), Ethan Schneider (drums) and Socrates Crus (bass). It’s a lush, succulent performance that draws upon the rejuvenation of the earth, turning pages between seasons but soaring into the sky as a much more imposing creature.
“If I Didn’t Know You by Now” anchors the band’s debut LP, Unionism, a historically-entrenched collection that aims to link our storied past with modern truths. A seed of an idea was planted during the band’s college studies when they were tasked with a project on the Civil War. In analyzing where humans have been, including such landmark events as the Battle of Nashville and the atomic bomb, they began piecing together a hearty cloth of American grit. Musically, they arrange various shards of alternative rock with folk music, slathering on the pulse of thick-skinned Americana for good measure.
Listen below:
