So Long Allo Darlin’: Mercury Girls’ Kevin Attics pens goodbye letter to UK indie pop greats
When Allo Darlin’ walk onto the stage of Scala in the Kings Cross section of London next week for their final show, they’ll likely be thinking about the nearly ten years they’ve spent together as a beloved indie pop band and the thousands of fans and friends they’ve made around the world. The Elizabeth Morris-led quartet released three full-length records in that time, their lustrous “Capricornia” single from 2012’s Europe becoming a familiar favorite for many.
Allo Darlin’ count among their fans Kevin Attics, whose Philly-based outfit Mercury Girls played alongside them at this year’s Pop Fest in NYC. Attics, who was particularly struck by the announcement that the group is disbanding, wrote a farewell letter for UK blog Gold Flake Paint this week, sharing a history of the band and his heartfelt gratitude for their existence.
In part:
In September of this year, the group announced that the difficult balancing act of being a functioning band and being functioning adults couldn’t continue. Life leads us places we could never imagine and there’s something heartening in seeing partners acknowledge that going forward is untenable; that the most emotionally resonant path is to have a proper swan song and begin the task of moving on. They conducted themselves with grace from start to finish. Released earlier this month, their farewell single, “Hymn on the 45” is a powerful, perfect goodbye note to the world. They go out opining the power of music and imploring us to “turn it up”. It’s both conciliatory and heartbreaking.
They’ve given us the cue that it’s time to bid adieu to the project and isn’t that a core value in music? There’s no meaning in A Long Forget. There’s no theatre in a formerly great band slowly becoming weekend warriors slowly becoming obsolete. Things are supposed to burn out instead of fade away. Few bands’ stories are seemingly so prosaic yet infused with such poise and judgment. It’s just like any one of their songs: a pocket novel that lends you some wisdom. Goodbye. Farewell. So long Allo Darlin’.
Read the full piece here and listen to Allo Darlin’s 2012 appearance on World Cafe below, followed by their final song “Hymn On the 45.”