Avenues lights the way with "Off the Lanterns"

"Off the Lanterns" is Avenues' raw tale that extends over years. It was penned in the dense fog of 2020's chaos and ultimately committed to tape live in the studio on October 19, 2024. This title track from their just-released EP feels like an unfolding memory in real time.

Written by Alkan Arslan, "Off the Lanterns" has the soul of a world on pause and the heart of someone trying to make their way through it. The poetic and delicate lyrics are full of feeling and deal with seclusion, loss, and that longing for clarity when the world feels inverted. 

Avenues is raw and sincere. The fact that the track was recorded live further deepens this experience. You can feel the air between the notes, the tiny pauses, the emotional substance sashaying in every silence. The vocals are felt, and the instrumentation is understated in all the right ways, allowing the song to breathe while pulling you further into its melancholic drift.

The real key is the combination of vagueness and familiarity. The lyrics are also open-ended enough for you to imprint a feeling on them, but they are grounded in so much actual emotion that you never feel at sea. Lines float like transient, lovely, and haunting. There is an almost dreamlike feel, as if the whole track hovers just before dawn. "Off the Lanterns" is introspective, slow-burning, and honest. Avenues offer a part of themselves, a moment preserved within music, shining still, even with the lanterns turned down.

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