The latest by Alex Southey wouldn’t sound terribly out of place somewhere within The Arkells early repertoire; even vocally he almost takes on a style I can only describe as a sleepy and slightly slurring Max Kerman sitting on the floor of his McMaster dorm room after striking out while trying to pick-up at a college party he stayed much too late out at.

Much of that comes from the loose production on the track, however, which was the intended design of Southey when he and producer Alex Gamble settled on its direction.

Of the track, Southey says:

The vast majority of this song’s life has been as a poorly recorded, poorly overdubbed, stitched-together voice note. I then played that basic recording on my laptop, and recorded more harmonies into my phone. It was like working with digital scotch tape. When I brought it to producer Alex Gamble, we kept multiple portions of the original demo in order to keep its frayed, worn-in qualities.

Admittedly it’s easy to fall in and out of the song; the looping guitar rhythm keeps you in a trance-like state, but the rough overdubs have a tendency to pull you in different directions in a way that never really allows you to fully settle into it as a whole. It’s almost distracting until you tune into what’s being said in the lyrics and once you have, we’re able to gain a whole new appreciation for its story. As I’ve said before, lyrically I find Southey one of Toronto’s more interesting songwriters because you’re never quite sure what to expect and much of it can be left to personal interpretation; This song is another great example of that.

The best part of the track comes towards the end with the curious repetition of the phrase, “And I don’t want to hear about burning towns on God’s green Earth” pulled from the songs’ chorus. It’s one of those simple phrases that changes the entire song from the first moment you hear it and much like the loosely tracked overdubs, the line is just enough out of place to spike your curiosity. I find myself wondering if it should be in this song at all, but it’s the part I enjoy the most and I don’t believe the song would be nearly as impactful without it.

Watch the brand new music video by Don River and listen to God’s Green Earth wherever you stream today.