Video: Kate Clover, ‘Heaven Down Here’

Kevin Bronson on March 11th, 2022

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Since launching her solo project in 2019 with the retro rave-up “Channel Zero” (and updating the song in 2020), Kate Clover has delivered a stylish jolt of electricity to guitar rock. It’s with no small amount of audacity that she plumbs first-wave punk and ’80s indie to make irascible (and irresistible) nuggets that simply exude cool.

In February, Clover announced that her debut album, “Bleed Your Heart Out,” would be out April 22, and along with that news unveiled the 13-minute mini-documentary, “Cut the Wire,” revealing her process and featuring interviews with her collaborator Brandon Welchez (Crocodiles) and with AJ and Johnny Davila (Davila 666). “Having played in bands most of my life, a solo project felt like an abstract possibility,” she acknowledges in the doc.

Clover’s new single “Heaven Down Here” — the follow-up to last fall’s “Crimewave” and January’s smart cover of “These Boots Were Made for Walkin’” — sounds nothing but concrete. Co-written and co-produced with Welchez, it’s a rocker that embraces the moment. “‘Heaven Down Here’ is the most jangle-pop-inspired cut from the album, inspired by the melancholic punk sound of the Saints and the C86 cassette compilation,” Clover says. “Lyrically, the song is about accepting one’s place in life and feeling content even when your choices are looked down upon.”

This one probably sounds great coming from well-used car speakers, so we’re going for a ride.

||| Watch: The video for “Heaven Down Here”