Leah Barley deletes a lying, manipulative lover from her phone and her life in her slow-burning new single and video Pack My Bags — premiering exclusively on Tinnitist.
Taken from the distinctive Vancouver singer-songwriter’s new EP Awkward & Heartbroken, Pack My Bags combines chiming guitar arpeggios, low-neck licks, shimmering pedal steel and a minimalist rhythm section into a lazy country shuffle. But the real stars of the show are Barley’s twangy vocals and conversational, confrontational lyrics that spin a yarn of addiction, lies, heartbreak and regret.
“It’s about leaving a situation after realizing how unhealthy it is,” she says. “I know a lot of people who choose to stay in those kinds of relationships in fear of being alone, but I can tell you, being alone and loving yourself is 100 times better than staying and being an afterthought.”
The song is simply but splendidly brought to life in the accompanying video — a one-shot wonder that captures Barley ambling to the end of the line along a set of disused railway tracks as she recites her musical Dear John letter. But even if her relationship is ending with a whimper, the video definitely goes out with a bang.
Barley’s sharp-eyed, chiaroscuro approach to songwriting is on full display on Awkward & Heartbroken (out Friday), her first release in five years. Featuring Don’t Get Weird (released as a single on Feb. 14) and Pack My Bags, it showcases Leah’s talent for taking listeners on a rollercoaster ride of emotions. Don’t Get Weird was specifically timed for Valentine’s Day, and finds her moving from traditional folk into vintage honky-tonk. She doesn’t hold back about expressing her recent romantic frustrations in the lyrics, prompting the song to appear twice in “explicit” and “clean” versions.
“Don’t Get Weird pretty much wrote itself after a few very interesting dates I experienced,” she says. “A lot of love songs are about young love or finding ‘the one,’ but I don’t know of many people sharing how incredibly awkward it is to date in your 40s.” Pack My Bags, she understates, “is on the opposite end of that spectrum.”
The crackling sound of both tracks was captured during a live-off-the-floor session at Vancouver’s Flash Recording with producer Jackson Gardner (formerly of B.C. rockers Gleneagle). Supporting Leah is her loyal band — upright bassist Ross Fairbairn, pedal steel guitarist Allan Haley and drummer Tom Tischer — with Spank Williams contributing piano on Don’t Get Weird and Chaya Harvey adding backing vocals on Pack My Bags. With things coming together so efficiently in the studio, it makes you wonder why it’s taken so long to follow up her 2020 album Bring Out Your Dead.
“I’ve really been focusing on myself and getting back into the community,” she explains. “I quit my retail job last May to focus more on music and I’ve been teaching beginner guitar, banjo, ukulele and songwriting… The songs coming out of me these days have a bit more of a bluesy and outspoken undertone to them, so I’m really interested to see what all of that leads to this year. I’m feeling more sassy these days and less heartbroken. But I’ll always be awkward.”
Watch the video for Pack My Bags above, hear more from Leah Barley below, and don’t get weird on her website, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
