Psych-pop Isle of Wight band As We Leave have just released a new sin­gle from their upcom­ing debut EP, Every­thing to a Point, which will be released on 13 Novem­ber 2020. The new track is called Hope That Kills, a melan­choly and thought­ful num­ber with a floaty, wist­ful feel. It cer­tain­ly dis­plays the matu­ri­ty of the young band, who have released two sin­gles so far.

The mem­bers of As We Leave all grew up on the pic­turesque bay of Sandown, Isle of Wight, going to the same school and cement­ing a firm friend­ship. Their songs reflect an island life where rur­al beau­ty, sunkissed beach­es and a rel­a­tive­ly care­free exis­tence have evi­dent­ly played their part.

In a sim­i­lar vein Hope That Kills is all about con­fronting sit­u­a­tions when things have not worked out as you hoped, the angst of the thwart­ed dream.  But there’s opti­mism too and reas­sur­ance too: it’s ok to fail once in a while. There’s an inter­view with As We Leave here.

But it’s fair to say that the band don’t over­play the pos­i­tive in favour of a more bal­anced approach to their lyrics. They aren’t afraid to tack­le and explore those more neg­a­tive feel­ings when things aren’t look­ing so rosy. Their first sin­gle Sto­ries We Tell was all about look­ing back in nos­tal­gia: those moments when you reflect on some of the best moments that have passed, and won­der if you can ever recre­ate such joy­ful times again. 

About Hope that Kills, front­man Caine Entwistle says: “This is a reflec­tion on hope, dis­il­lu­sion and the con­tra­dic­tions and beau­ty of nos­tal­gia. When expec­ta­tion and promis­es aren’t met, pour­ing your faith into some­thing can lead to inevitable disappointment.”

NEW SINGLE, ‘HOPE THAT KILLS’ – OUT OCTOBER 30
The debut EP con­sists of five tracks: Every­thing to a Point will be released 13 Novem­ber 2020 via Abbey Records