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May 09, 2022 By Caleb Campbell

Minneapolis indie rock band Hot Freaks released their first (and currently only) full-length record in 2013, debuting to local success before going their separate ways two years later. However, over the pandemic the band reunited, and announced their forthcoming EP, Lovely, due out this June. The band have already shared the EP’s title track, and they’re now back with another new single, “This Time Last Year.”

“This Time Last Year” finds the band in a contemplative mood, reflecting on the aftermath of a relationship. The track begins in a haze of blissful memory (“This time last year I was falling in love / It was the biggest thrill I’ve ever had”), but quickly explores the darker territory of heartbreak and longing. In a conflicted storm of sober descending piano chords and swelling strings, frontman Leo Vondracek tries to find a way to pick up the pieces and move on from the heartbreak.

Vondracek says, “’This Time Last Year’ is as dark and stormy as I’ve gone as a songwriter. The lyrics are a serious attempt to understand a breakup and move past it in a positive way, but the overall tone of the song is somber. If ‘Lovely’ and ‘This Time Last Year’ are cut from the same cloth of experience, ‘Lovely’ got a bit more of the optimism, and ‘This Time Last Year’ got a bit more of the dread. Also this marks the first time real strings have ever been arranged for a Hot Freaks record!”

Check out the song below, out everywhere now. Lovely is coming this June.