Hop Along share new track ‘Not Abel’

Philadelphia bunch Hop Along returned back in January with news of their new album ‘Bark Your Head Off, Dog’, which is coming out on 6th April through Saddle Creek.

Speaking of the record at the time, Frances Quinlan said: “By thinking you’re powerless, you’re really robbing yourself. I’m at a point in my life where I’m saying instead, ‘Well, what can I do?’”

At the time, they also shared the driving opening track, ‘How Simple’. Now they’ve shared ‘Not Abel’, which takes a little bit of a different turn both musically and thematically. Whereas ‘How Simple’ was a poppier moment that looked inwards, with Frances grappling with what it’s like to know more abut yourself, ‘Not Abel’ is a more swooning chamber-pop cut that turns the focus outward. Frances examines how other people can be kind of disappointing, whether that’s strangers or even figures from the Bible.

Speaking of the track, Frances Quinlan said: “Karl Ove Knausgaard wrote a great book called A Time for Everything. I’d say it inspired a lot of little moments, in this song especially. At one point he writes about Cain and Abel, but approaches it with a far more intimate, even mundane lens, completely unlike the Bible, which is pretty bare of any personal description. As you spend a few days with them, Cain becomes increasingly sympathetic. It’s a funny thing trying to examine beliefs. Sympathy and understanding complicate everything too much I suppose”.

Listen to ‘Not Abel’ below.