Brooklyn-based shoegaze duo smush have released their latest single, “don’t know why.”
A re-working of Norah Jones’ hit of the same name, the single comes alongside the announcement of their upcoming EP, standards, due to be released on February 20.
Having emerged from Canada’s underground shoegaze scene in 2024 with their debut EP if you were here i’d be home now, the duo – made up of Emily Borrowman on bass and vocals and Atley King on guitars – originally met in Vancouver before their relocation to New York City.
The duo said: “”Don’t Know Why” is a really special song for us because it always reminds us of New York City. When we first started working on our cover of this classic we hadn’t yet moved [there] and it would always bring to mind thoughts of Norah Jones at the start of her career. To us it seemed like she had found an indescribable magic in that place, and it was very inspirational to us at the time. Since moving here, we have found something similarly special and this is our way of saying thank you.”
Fuzzy and jangly, smush’s re-working of “don’t know why” is simultaneously both fresh and deeply nostalgic.
It evokes the feeling of staying up all night to wait for the sunrise, and the sense of quiet solitude that the early morning evokes. The steady drum machine beats sit louder than the vocals, which only adds to the far-away, sleepy tone.
It is, in a word, lovely.
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