“The Right Thing Is Hard To Do” by Lightning Bug

The band’s new single accents their dreampop with a hint of country twang.

My introduction to Audrey Kang’s Lightning Bug came via Sounds Better With Reverb’s 2015 shoegazer/dreampop compilation, and specifically, the song “Luminous Veil,” a slice of lo-fi shoegaze pop par excellence. Kang and her bandmates have since signed to Fat Possum Records and continued to release music at a fairly consistent pace.

Their latest album, A Color of the Sky, will be released on June 25, but the first single has already dropped. Titled “The Right Thing Is Hard To Do,” it blends Lightning Bug’s dreamy pop sensibilities with a slight hint of country twang à la Amy Annelle.

Meanwhile, the song’s lyrics — delivered in Kang’s lilting voice — touch on everything from childhood loneliness and naïveté to the moral complexities of adulthood (“As we turn from what we know is right/And time… Is time still on our side?”) to commentary on Donald Trump’s efforts to build a border wall. Through it all, though, she communicates a desire to live in love rather than surrender to fear.

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