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Jan 24, 2024 By Caleb Campbell

In 2022, Brooklyn-based indie singer/songwriter Meredith Lampe shared the Quitting Season EP, her debut EP leading dreamy indie rock outfit Work Wife. In the years since, Lampe and her bandmates Cody Edgerly and Kenny Monroe have been crafting their forthcoming sophomore EP, Waste Management, due out on April 12th via Born Losers Records. As the band describes, the EP finds them taking their sprawling soundscapes in reflective new directions, exploring what it feels like to watch the world pass by when it feels as if you’re stuck in slow motion.

Lampe says, “Living in New York, watching the world change rapidly and feeling like you should too, wandering in and out of friendships and relationships and locations and moments. We wanted to explore the tension of opposites: feeling extreme stress from busyness but having nothing to do, feeling lonely while surrounded by people, how time speeds up and slows down in periods of confusion and joy, respectively. There aren’t instructions for this stuff, and most of the time it feels like we’re shooting in the dark. This EP is us processing how to navigate life with only intuition, reading between the lines and peering out as the city goes by through a squint.”

Accompanying the announcement, the band have also shared the EP’s lead single, “Strangers,” premiering with Under the Radar.

“Strangers” hits a lot of the same notes as the band’s previous tracks, taking on a tone that is at once languid, melancholic, and cinematic. Swaying rhythms and layers of guitar build as the track unfurls into a heartfelt sing-along, with the band’s vocals lacing together into swirls of warm vocal tones and gauzy guitar textures. By its end, the track hits a triumphant high, pairing Lampe’s downcast meditations with lush, shining melodies.

Lampe explains, “‘Strangers’ is about the loft that Kenny and I live in, the strangeness that exists therein and the city that surrounds it. When I first moved to New York, I came home exhausted every day from always feeling in the way and the constant noise. Eventually, all that chaos fades into the background but still serves as the soundtrack to our lives. It creeps into our phone calls and our subconscious and settles like a layer on our skin.”

Check out the song and visualizer below. The Waste Management EP is due out on April 12th via Born Losers Records.