One of the most heartening stories in music last year was the welcome return of Fazerdaze: after an absence of five long years, Amelia Murray released the excellent EP Break!, a swift but impactful reminder of what we had been missing since 2017.
There were extenuating circumstances behind the absence, from the dissolution of a long-term relationship to the fatigue and ennui of dealing with an industry that doesn’t care about you back. Still, there was the gripping sense that Murray had unfinished business with the Fazerdaze project.
What Break! hinted at, “Flood Into” proves: the Christchurch musician’s new single, released today, emphasises that the transition from restrictive bedroom pop into myriad genres on her 2022 EP was no mere detour (“Flood Into” was originally only available on the vinyl-only version of Break! but the track is now fully out in the world on all platforms).
On “Flood Into”, it’s shoegaze’s turn, the track sounding like Japanese Breakfast in their Soft Sounds From Another Planet era.
The deep reverb and spacey vocals befit the track’s subject. “Now’s the time / Take back all your space / And I’ll take back mine / Letting out your breath / When I breathe in mine,” Fazerdaze sings in a low register, at a remove, reduced in the swarm of sombre memories.
And then the shining chorus emerges, bringing with it a reclaimed sense of self: “But when I finally found the sense to leave / I felt myself flood back, flood into me”.
It’s a powerful sentiment. “It’s the feeling of my own energy rushing to fill me back up again,” she explains. “I wrote “Flood Into” in anticipation of a break up. The song embodies all the melancholy I felt from letting go of someone I loved in order to walk my own path and learn to stand in my own frame again.”
That’s why her new single is, she adds, “for anyone who has ever lost sight of themselves in love.” We’ve all been there.
While it’s unclear if “Flood Into” will feature on a much-anticipated follow-up album to 2017’s Morningside, Murray definitely has more music planned. “I’ve been working on this other body of work, and there’s such a vision with it,” she told Rolling Stone AU/NZ in 2022, adding that “there’s a lot of stuff coming next year.”
Break! was recognised for its quality with Fazerdaze being one of 10 finalists for this year’s Taite Music Prize, with the winner set to be announced on Tuesday, April 18th.
Fazerdaze’s “Flood Into” is out now via Section 1.
