Our October pick for Sheffield Spotlight comes from local Dream-Pop favourites Oh Papa and their new track ‘Hello Old Friend’.
‘Hello Old Friend‘, as with all Oh Papa tracks, combines some beautiful, delicate guitar with the wonderfully soft voice of Jack Davies to create an ethereal indie sound. The wistful nature of the track, as seen in the name, really comes through thanks to the gorgeous finger-picking guitar throughout the track. The southern-influenced drawl on the guitar really creates this feeling of longing, and remembrance, with the whole sound of the track effectively blurring the lines between wistfulness and melancholia, creating a beautiful, intimate song. This dichotomy is represented best by the contrast between the subtle strings & vocal harmonies, with the more heavy guitar sound that comes in about a minute and twenty seconds into the track.
Like the music, the lyrics of the song further explore this emotional look at the past, with Jack continually asking the subject “do you remember when we met each other/for the very first time?”. There is a real vulnerability in the lyrics, but also a sense of happiness, whether that is good memories from the past or an optimistic ideal of the future. The song is, lyrically, very redolent of Nick Drake and Elliott Smith, with a bit of Wilco/Jeff Tweedy thrown in for good measure. Overall, Hello Old Friend is an absolutely masterful track from the as-always brilliant Oh Papa.
Oh Papa’s newest single can be found on their Spotify.