Petal finds closure on the moving new “Stardust”
With Petal‘s release date for her forthcoming LP Magic Gone rapidly approaching, the Scranton- and Philly-based project of Kiley Lotz has shared one last single — “Stardust,” the new album’s closing track.
We’ve already heard two singles from the record, “Better Than You” and “Tightrope,” both of which are full-blown, uptempo rockers that are sure to easily fill a room when Petal tours full-band this summer. But the first minute and a half of “Stardust” is strikingly reminiscent not of Petal’s new songs, but of Lotz’s last release under the moniker, the solo EP Comfort — all delicate piano and lilting vocals.
As it turns out, the soft start to “Stardust” ends up being but a brief moment of quiet on the record that quickly comes to an end when the band kicks in and the song unfurls. Detailing the dissolution of a relationship with wistful honesty, Lotz sings, “Now we’re living in shitty apartments with mismatched dishes, unlike our parents / Maybe we’d make good parents, but maybe not / I can’t say I didn’t love you.”
Lotz tells Noisey:
“Stardust is the resolution of the record. It’s about coming to terms with the end of a relationship and the things that went wrong, but knowing you wouldn’t change a thing and that you’ll always love and cherish the time you had with that person, and the growth that got you to where you both are now. It hurts thinking ‘maybe this’ or ‘what if,’ but at the end of it, it was worth it because that love was real and led to both people growing. All the pain in growing led me to finding peace with myself and accepting the ways I still have to go.”
Magic Gone will be released June 15 via Run For Cover. Petal plays two sold out shows at PhilaMOCA on June 20 and 21 with Camp Cope.