4 out of 5

Label: Deathwish

Produced by: Jamie Savage (engineered by)

Two bleak, affecting songs contemplating death, and the decay of our “selves” as we iterate into old age.

A-side Indoor Wind Chimes is a “typical” Self Defense track, pairing an emo guitar lick and loping drums with Patrick Kindlon shouting atop; Cottaging keeps things at a muted tone, with a similar pace and musical structure, but Kindlon speak-singing his thoughts.

Both tunes (as a lot of SDF tracks tend to) rely on some repetition for their immersiveness, letting the guitar tones kind of wash over the listener; given the life-is-tedium nature of the lyrics, this works really well, and Cottaging, especially, is very entrancing.

That said, it almost seems like the approaches should’ve been flip-flopped, with Cottaging’s short phrases and more directly volatile lyrics better suited to shouted; Indoor Wind Chimes’ more open-ended style to speak-singing (which it does apply in its last section). While that’s subjective, only because the tunes have quite a bit of tonal crossover is this single perhaps limited – the songs are otherwise very, very strong.