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Mar 11, 2021 By Caleb Campbell

​Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter Sarah Cicero explores the confusing and uncertain territory of newfound love in her newest single, “At Arm’s Length,” premiering with Under the Radar. The track is the third shared from her upcoming debut EP Cold Immaculate Opposite, following “Indifferent” and “Letter To The Editor.” On Cold Immaculate Opposite, Cicero joins with a close community of her Brooklyn DIY peers, penning heartfelt odes to the rush of new experiences that comes with being twenty-something and lonely.

Though her previous singles already pointed to Cicero’s penchant for moving melodies and wistful lyricism, “At Arm’s Length” is possibly her most poignant track yet. Cicero beautifully captures the feeling of your first “real love,” delivering confessional lyrics over a symphonic rush of instrumentation.

The ringing guitar tones and mournful pedal steel of the verses accompany Cicero’s uncertain reflections—“Confess my love/At least once a season/Convince myself I mean it/But the words don’t taste like you do.” But the subdued energy explodes into dynamic motion with the chorus, brought to new life by Cicero’s newfound desire for real emotional intimacy. She confesses, “I want to wake up curled around you in the morning/I want to want to stay.” It’s a stark picture of vulnerability as Cicero surrenders to new love, even as she is kept at arm’s length.

Cicero says of the track, “At Arm’s Length is such a precious song to me for a ton of reasons, but the biggest is because I wrote it the first time I ever experienced real “grown-up” love. And the memory of picking up my guitar and trying to capture the infinite wonderful, terrifying, confusing, thrilling, conflicting emotions that come with that realization—that, ready or not, you’re in love with someone—is a really special memory.”

“The arrangement, which is 100% my favorite on the record, came together (as always) with the help of my producer, Sahil Ansari. We put a lot of care into this arrangement because I really wanted it to be dynamic and dramatic, with these explosive choruses and a huge, lush, almost cinematic outro. Sahil had the game-changing idea to add pedal steel and came up with an electric guitar part for the chorus that blew my mind and then we brought in Reid Jenkins (of Morningsiders) to play violin on the outro, which he did beautifully and perfectly, and so the song ended up far surpassing what I had envisioned.” Check out the song below and watch for Cold Immaculate Opposite, coming April 9th.