Nap Eyes' most recent album, 2020's Snapshot of a Beginner, featured an absolutely gorgeous ballad about evolution, "Primordial Soup," which contrasted the Halifax band's slacker rock vibe with an empathetic, philosophical look at humanity.
Their new single "Feline Wave Race" takes a similar perspective, its musings on life delivered with a heavy-lidded drawl and a winking sense of humour. Alongside a tip-tapping drum machine and loose acoustic strumming, vocalist Nigel Chapman delivers a quietly devastating series of lines: "Down on a rock planet / With water and trees / Were a hundred million or so / Double barrelling monkeys and / Might be half a billion or so / Types of beetle species / And nobody but me / That's just like me."
The verses go on and on for six minutes, with the lyrics making room for skull-cracking and a cat playing Wave Race 64, before the song's lonely synth lead and a long fadeout. As a comeback after a few years of silence, it's a beautifully patient reintroduction to the group.