song: "Losing" — Little Kid

words: sean fennell

Ontario’s Little Kid aren’t ones to look back all that often, their four album catalog very rarely embraces nostalgia. It’s this reluctance that makes the new single, “Losing” a refreshing take on their brand of idiosyncratic folk. The single’s bluesy, cloudless-sky piano, which brings to mind bands like the Fruit Bats or one of Michael Nau’s many projects, gives the whole thing a percussive, ambling momentum. “Losing” is the follow-up to the more guitar-centric, swirler “Thief On The Cross” released earlier this year, all leading to the band’s fifth album, Transfiguration Highway (out 7/3 via Solitaire Recordings).

As is the case with much of Transfiguration Highway, not to mention Little Kid’s catalogue as a whole, “Losing” is imbued with a distinct sense of literary longing. Telling the tale of two distinct characters, the song weaves its way through stories of loss with a kind of reluctant sense of acceptance rather than regret. “You’ve always had a way with losing,” sings songwriter Kenny Boothby in a breathy, delicate voice before giving way, in the latter half, to bandmate Megan Lunn, making for a brilliant give and take.

"This song tells two fictional stories about characters experiencing some kind of loss," says Boothby of the track. "In the first verse, the narrator’s friend loses their savings on a drunken bet on a dog race. In the second, the narrator expresses regret for choosing to leave a person they still find themselves in love with.”

Listen to the single below and be sure to check out Transfiguration Highway this summer.