Kevin Bronson on November 6th, 2017

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The new single from Oddnesse is a patient song about running out of patience. “You’re like a cat on a hot tin roof / It’s not cute, anymore,” Rebeca Arango sings plaintively, content to be on her own, driving through the desert and listening to White Snake on the radio.

The tune, the latest in the New Jersey-born Arango’s collaboration with producer Grey Goon (aka Doug Walters), wraps a year in which Oddnesse has proven to be one of the most compelling new voices on the L.A. scene, in dream-pop or any other genre. Her understated vocals have the conviction of someone tethered to reality while conscious that her heart might have a reality of its own. Walters’ lush soundscapes are perfect for them.

Arango says this of the new single, which started with a keyboard sequence Walter played one day in the studio: “It aligned with a kind of freedom I had been enjoying lately. That year I had driven alone from L.A. to Utah and back twice. I absolutely loved it, in the way I’ve always loved the independence of no one needing me, no one expecting me, no one to confer with about where I might stop, when I might leave, if I might come back. I was grateful on those trips (as one usually is) for the dissolution of a relationship I had been overly attached to. I was grateful that my mind was clear and that I had the experience to myself. I was happy. I didn’t need to know what was next.”

||| Stream: “I Used To”

||| Previously: Live in Chinatown, “Are You Down,” “Scream,” “Incoming Call”