…pack a bag, LEX HELGERSON – Paradise Lost

Lex Helgerson – Paradise Lost is available at Spotify, SoundCloud.

by Walter Price

“Drunk, mourn and move on” is the undercurrent of the new single, “Paradise Lost”, from GTC favorite Lex Helgerson (Who Can Sleep). With her signature airy vocals and ensconced in a dream-pop soundscape, this new solo track is as lyrically heavy as it is atmospherically beautiful.

To give some background, Helgerson told the GTC, “Paradise Lost was written and recorded in my grandmother’s garage in Sacramento, California during a heatwave in 2020 that spawned (yet again) record-breaking wildfires and hazardous air throughout the western US for months. My partner Dean and I visited our beloved and eerily quiet San Francisco to shoot the video in November, though it feels like a long time ago we said goodbye.”

And speaking of the song’s accompanying film, in an open-book essay the songwriter paints a literary scene, “Daylight savings had just ended and the skies began to slip into their Winter garb. The ocean and the beach were to be featured in the video, and given the fast-sinking afternoon sun, we drove there first.” And the grainy DIY images in the video bring a sense of old family vacation film comfort.

Moving away from what makes you comfortable is never an easy decision. But when you start to realize family responsibilities, loss, familiarity, social chaos, and a lingering pandemic, the things you hold dear become even more cherished and may even become a burden, of sorts, when you decide to pack your bags to leave.

You can stream this indelible new single as well as see its ode to the magic of San Francisco, now at the GTC.

LEX HELGERSON – Paradise Lost

patreon // who can sleep

“I wrote the song on September 20th, according to my notes, and I know on that morning I was also hungover. Hmm. The song is about leaving California, the place Dean and I have lived for a combined forty-two years.” – Helgerson

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