Our other rescued gem from 2021 is Curse of Lono‘s single ‘Ursula Andress’, which arrived in late November alongside the band’s latest album People In Cars. Majorly written by the group’s founding member Felix Bechtolsheimer, the record is a shrine to the year that was 2020, a tough year for many of us, especially those who suffered personal losses and saw their industry take a massive hit. For the band’s songwriter, it was the deaths of his father, grandfather and ex-partner, as well as the drifting apart of Curse of Lono, that set the groundwork for the emotional rollercoaster that People In Cars contains.
“Right now I can do what I fucking like. I got a record that’s my favourite record I’ve ever made by a long way, and it’s the record I needed to make. I lost my dad, my uncle and my ex-partner last year, and my band, but I’ve got this record and I almost look at it like a bit of a shrine.”
Within that is ‘Ursula Andress’, the marching, soft-americana song that contrasts the jubilant melodies to Bechtolsheimer‘s laissez-faire vocal. He carries on this dichotomy into the music video in which is the suited and slightly dishevelled musician appears unaffected by the laughing, dancing, partying people around him. It’s oddly mesmerizing and irks questions out of the watcher; ones that will go unanswered by the stoney faced protagonist.
There’s ten more songs to explore in People In Cars, such as tragic ‘So Damned Beautiful’ or nine-minute closer ‘Time Slippin’, so be sure to check that out here.
Listen to ‘Ursula Andress’ is our Folk This Way playlist.
Follow Curse of Lono:
UNRECORDED 