Kevin Bronson on November 18th, 2021

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It is spring yet? Must be. “Nine Stories” could have only been released in the bright sunshine, with flowers in full bloom.

Well, yes, we can read the calendar, but that makes this slice of jangling indie-pop no less fetching.

It’s the new single from L.A.-based Australian Hazel English and her first release since the 2020 album “Wake Up!” It’s also a collaboration with Jackson Phillips of Day Wave (busy, busy dude), whom she knew from their time in the Bay Area. They exchanged ideas during the lockdown, she says, explaining, “Jackson and I have such a great flow when it comes to working on music that it was easy to essentially pick up where we had left off. Our process together is very quick and fun, no second-guessing.”

Noting the reverie-like quality of both the song and her self-directed video, she adds: “I also think the pandemic and time at home got me thinking a lot about my past and remembering high school experiences and those kinds of feelings that were so vivid at that time. So I found myself writing lyrics that were inspired by some of those experiences and then I kind of created a whole new story out of it.”

The song is one in a series of “narratives that make up one bigger story,” she says.

Let’s all go back to high school.

||| Watch: The video for “Nine Stories”

||| Previously: “Combat,” “Off My Mind”