Kevin Bronson on January 14th, 2021

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Allie Crow Buckley’s new single “Nothing Sacred” feels like being pulled through a dense haze of memories, chronicled in a Laurel Canyon-esque sound but originating far away in both place and time. It’s the work of an artist fascinated by mythology who is creating her own.

The song, a languid swirl of distorted guitar, layered synths and vivid imagery, is the the first single from Buckley’s debut full-length “Moonlit and Devious,” out March 12. The album was co-produced with Jason Boesel (Rilo Kiley, Conor Oberst) and Mike Viola — she worked with the same duo on her 2019 EP “So Romantic” — and features guitarist Dylan Day (Nick Hakim, Ethan Gruska) and keyboardist Lee Pardini (Dawes, Cass McCombs). There’s also one song, “Gold Medallion,” co-written with Sharon Van Etten.

Buckley has lived in a lot of places — she was born in San Francisco before moving to Venice, spending her formative years in New Zealand and returning twice to California around a three-year stint in New York — and visited a lot of others. “Nothing Sacred” references Buckley’ experience in Italy.

“This song was inspired by my experience in a mystical area of Italy, that was once inhabited by the Etruscans, an ancient civilization of earth worshipers,” Buckley says. “It was a heavy and surreal place, with a distinct presence of spirit. There was an otherworldly feel, like a sort of wine dream, and these long winding pathways.”

That’s reflected in both the song and the video, directed by Katherina Acevedo and Alexis Zabe. “Sonically,” Buckley says, “that is what the song sounds like to me, you’re sort of spiraling down further and further into the earth by the end. We shot the video at a mysterious old oak tree. Alexis and Katherina really captured the personality and story of the song so well.”

||| Watch: The video for “Nothing Sacred”

||| Previously: “Cherry Stems,” “Captive”