With characteristic ambiguity, Eric Schroeder describes “Emily” as a tune “whipped in a crock from the sweet cream of time.”
He continues: “It’s a work ballad, a road song, a hymn—a song like a truck driver who ate the wrong mushroom and didn’t get high.”
Cat’s Game, the San Diego-bred singer/songwriter’s third full-length release, is available April 11 via Enabler No. 6. The album was produced by Grammy winner Rob Schnapf (Elliott Smith, Kurt Vile, X) at his Mant Sounds studio in Los Angeles. Its meaty full-band sound—courtesy of bassist/engineer Matt Schuessler, drummer Jake Richter and keyboardist Aidan Finn—is the perfect delivery method for Schroeder’s craftiest and most irreverent batch of songs to date.
A definite highlight, “Emily” is a mesmerizing swirl of angular, Pavement-inspired indie rock, trippy power pop and the sort of parched troubadour fare one would expect from a fan of Townes Van Zandt and Gram Parsons. Listen closely, and you may notice something else.
“There’s not a single guitar on the track—it’s all harpsichords and tablas,” says Schroeder, before getting back to the business of being as cryptic as possible. “Someone else wrote the words, but I have yet to meet her. Seems like she’s probably not a nice gal—or at least she seems that way because the words are so insecure. Staring out my window over and under a mountain pass, it snows. I think I saw her walking out there this morning.”
We’re proud to premiere Eric Schroeder’s “Emily.”
—Hobart Rowland
