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Sep 18, 2023 By Caleb Campbell Photography by Lisa Czech

Since her self-released debut, Jenny Owen Youngs has already had a fascinating and wide-ranging career, including soundtrack work for film and TV, pop song co-writes with Pitbull and Panic! At the Disco, and retrospective re-watch podcasts on Buffy The Vampire Slayer and X-Files. Amidst all that, she’s also managed to write some great music of her own. Most recently, she released an ambient album this year with John Mark Nelson, OFFAIR: From The Forest Floor. She has also quickly followed that record with Avalanche, her first full-length solo album in almost a decade.

The record encompasses ten years of reflections on growth, joy, loss, and love, exploring a spectrum of emotions amidst lush and placid instrumental arrangements. Avalanche also sees Youngs work with producer Josh Kaufman (The National, The Hold Steady, Bonny Light Horseman) and recruiting a slate of friends and collaborators, including S. Carey, Madi Diaz, The Antlers’ Peter Silberman, and Christian Lee Hutson.

She has shared the record’s title track already, followed by “Knife Went In” and “It’s Later Than You Think” this summer. Today, she’s back with her fourth and final single from the record, “Everglades,” premiering with Under the Radar.

“Everglades” was co-written with singer/songwriter Christian Lee Hutson while Youngs was based in LA. As she describes, the track was written in her home studio with a gentle breeze blowing through an open door. The track captures that same sense of effortless, sun-lit tranquility, with Youngs’ vocals dancing above light acoustic tones, shuffling rhythms, and golden-tinged guitar licks. Youngs and Hutson immerse the track in blissful warmth, even as the lyrics reveal darker shades lying beneath the lilting harmonies: “When I was in the Everglades / Caught a lotta shade / Can’t remember everything / I tell the truth but in between / I say a lot of things I don’t mean.”

Youngs explains of the track, “People say there are three sides to every story: your side, my side, and the truth. I have discovered through trial and error that further subdivisions can emerge when you’re not entirely honest with yourself. ‘Everglades’ is concerned with the truth, and lies, and whatever grey area might exist in the cracks between the two.”

Check out the song and video below. Avalanche is out everywhere on September 22nd via Yep Roc Records. You can also listen to Youngs’ episode with the Why Not Both podcast here.