Widowspeak’s New Song “The Dream” Is a Sublime Escape
Molly Hamilton wasn’t sure there would be a fourth Widowspeak album. The humble dream-pop band she founded with guitarist and partner Robert Earl Thomas already made their “moving away from Brooklyn” album, 2015’s All Yours, after relocating to Saugerties, New York about three years ago. Then they moved again, to Tacoma, Washington, where Hamilton grew up. She spent a lot of time at her dad’s house, watching old episodes of Northern Exposure and listening to Alt 102.9—a.k.a. KFOO, the iHeartMedia empire’s own tribute to the Foo Fighters.
“It was like I was in a time warp,” Hamilton tells SPIN, “being back in my hometown and only listening to music from the ’90s.” She’s speaking over the phone from—surprise—Brooklyn, where she and Thomas have wound up once again. When she first moved out to Tacoma, though, she didn’t know what ought to come next. “There wasn’t anything dramatic that happened or anything,” she says. “It just sort of stopped being obvious what the next step was.” She took a job at an architectural salvage supply, wondered if she should find another career, and daydreamed about moving again.
The 2016 election precipitated a put-up-or-shut-up moment and prompted Hamilton to keep working on Widowspeak. Expect the Best is out August 25 from Captured Tracks. Recorded as a full band—Hamilton, Thomas, bassist Willy Muse, and…