The opening through Sad Songs
Mamalarky’s new single Sad Songs occupies the second position on Hover. The band has announced a 12-track album, scheduled through Epitaph for 12 February 2027. Livvy Bennett describes the song as offering company to people experiencing loneliness, loss and emotional confusion. That intention provides a starting point for its words. The recording details in the album announcement invite attention to how the sounds accompanying those words were selected. The song’s name and the studio decisions offer two entrances to the same work.[1]
Bennett handles vocals and guitar, Michael B. Hunter keyboards, Dylan Hill drums and Noor Khan bass. Bennett and Hunter also shared production and engineering. This division of work suggests a process in which instrumentalists participate in deciding how their own sounds are recorded and arranged. Another possibility is that performance and technical work took place in separate sessions. A useful question arising from the personnel is when, and by whose decision, each sound entered the piece.[1]
Rhythm on tape, rain in the room
The band says most rhythm tracks were recorded to tape. Its environmental recordings include wind chimes, bells and rain. The musical interest lies in placing sounds from the surroundings alongside named instrumental roles such as drums and bass. Thinking of rain within an arrangement means asking about its entrance, duration and surrounding silence. Those questions connect the album’s announced working method to specific decisions about music.[1]
It is easy to reward tape alone with adjectives such as warmth or intimacy. What I find more revealing is that Hover’s announcement names both the medium holding the rhythm and the sounds taken from the surroundings. Tape, wind chimes and rain identify different sources. An arrangement concerns the order and weight with which those sources meet. The listener’s question sits there: whether a sound belongs to the surroundings or to the accompaniment can be considered through the role it takes within the piece.[1]
The studio’s role
The recordings took place in Bennett and Hunter’s home studio in Glendale. A Hollywood backdrop artist previously used the space. Hunter describes feeling the room’s history throughout the new album. Alongside that personal account sits a more concrete choice: the group also recorded environmental sounds. The space is described both as the musicians’ workplace and as one of the sources of recorded material.[1]
What holds my interest in Hover is the meeting between Bennett’s description of making room for uncertainty and these specific tools. Most rhythms are on tape; the personnel cover guitar, keyboards, drums and bass; rain and bells enter from the surroundings. These details name the sounds available for exercising that creative freedom. Sad Songs is the released piece through which to consider the words’ emotional intention. Hover’s recording method offers a concrete framework for asking which sounds are admitted alongside it.[1]