Elaine Howley - Hold Me In A New Way (Ltd. 300 Copies)

Swooning DIY pop specialist Elaine Howley lands on Modern Love’s 7” series for a supremely smouldering session, skewing late night pop diamonds for the fantasy jukebox. Be warned, ‘Hold Me In A New Way’ is one of those earworms that doesn’t easily let go, advancing on the sort of intimate songcraft that first snagged our ears to Elaine’s quietly extraordinary debut LP, ‘The Distance Between Heart and Mouth.’, back in 2022. Just a pulsing drum machine, bass guitar, synth and voice on this one, and yet it exudes a kind of oily tenderness and spectral/physical tension that never quite resolves, no matter how many times we play it.  Aye, one of those. On the flip, CD'S drys out the rhythm to a brittle snap and pop with Howley’s vox in a radiant aether of smudged FM synth refrains and echoing contrails that feel like Nite Jewel’s urbane Cali ennui transposed to a misty Cork horizon. Perfect music for insomniacs and romancers.