PREMIERE Soft No, "Oxford Street"

Philly’s Soft No; photographed by Mark Diehl.

Fixations on fleeting moments from the past can consume the consciousness of the deeply pensive mind. Far from an anomaly in the throes of lamentations and regret; the ways in which we could have affected, or impacted differently what has already been can forever replay like spinning zoetrope images of alternate histories. In manners of grief, it can be the last interaction of someone who has passed, where a brief instance of exchanges become embronzed for perpetuity within the inner sanctum of the heart. Questions of what if there was more time, what we could done otherwise, and all the what ifs that plague the most obsessive aspects of ourselves.

Philly’s Soft No explores these tenebrous undercurrents that traverse through the hades streams of eternal absentia on “Oxford Street”. Featured on their upcoming EP Super Neutral for Abandon Everything Records: Allison Lannutti, Austin Lotz, Scott Signorino, Kate Lowe, and Jonathan Martello made their presences known to the world on their raucous and infectious 2024 self-titled debut. The band beautifully channels rage, the unruly disorder of the unconscious, and the epistemology of emotional bonds in a cathartic, blazing bonfire display of thunderous chords that rise up to the skies like a molten lava laden tidal waves of electric orchestrations.

"Oxford Street" eases into the deep end, with chords that quietly wade into the vast ferocious waters of wandering thoughts and souls. Allison articulates the void of loss in the memorials that are built in the mausoleums of memory, conjuring together the conversations one wishes they could have had with someone they have lost in lyrical reminisces of what what was, and what would have been different. Holding on to that last encounter, chorus recitations of saw you on the street last night propel the song's tempest cast above in the celestial heavens to a baroque finale of cloud swaying streams of palatial strings.

The song returns to those sacred, surreal, and precious places in time that remain forever lodged in our spirits — adjacent to the most guarded places of the psyche. Soft No shares in the universal understanding that you indeed cannot return to those critical points in the past, while also entertaining what if we could, and what other outcomes and potential timelines would be possible. The group crafts catharsis with the genuine edges of dive bar poetics, charged with ascendant aspirations for stages that stand above the stratospheres, towering up high into the cosmos.

Allison Lannutti provided some candid reflections on the new single:

“Oxford St” is a raw reflection surrounding the night before a friend’s passing. It chases a hazy, intoxicated feeling of solace and levity that kept replaying in my mind for years — and still does to this day. I wanted to capture how fleeting and precious those moments were, even in their chaos.

Having a sit with Soft No; photographed by Cecilia Orlando.

My memories of that night are surreal, dreamlike, and euphoric, so different from the stark reality that the daylight inevitably brought. The lyrics touch on internal struggles, and how grief creates this impossible distance. This last encounter feels like a fragile, transient moment. It’s beautiful but gone in an instant.

At home with Soft No; photographed by Cecilia Orlando.

In the end, it’s an honest look at memory, regret, a sense of longing and reflection on the unpredictable, fragile nature of human connections. We’ve all experienced loss and regret in one way or another, and I hope folks can relate to that feeling, the sense of something slipping away, or wishing we’d done more.

“Oxford Street” will be available March 19 via Abandon Everything Records.