Whitney: "No Woman"

Max Kakacek and Julian Ehrlich, both formerly of Smith Westerns, left Chicago last year and decamped in L.A. to record their debut as Whitney, a sly retro outfit they started after their old band dissolved. Their lead single, “No Woman,” is a gooey and aching country ballad that meditates on one of dad rock’s most hallowed themes: the melancholy of crossing city limits to escape everything about your old life and old loves.

Ehrlich, who’s also done time in Unknown Mortal Orchestra, sings in an unvarnished falsetto that carries this drifting song. The reticent piano, trumpet, and strummed guitar begs you to close your eyes and let Ehrlich sadly whisk you away: “I left drinkin’ on the city train to spend some time on the road/ Then one morning I woke up in L.A.” His voice threatens to crack as he oozes the lines of the chorus—”No womannnnn”—while admitting he’s not ready to end his redemptive journey. A suite of wonderfully schmaltzy horns and strings wash out the laconic singing, and give the song a sentimental, sepia-toned nostalgia. In “No Woman,” Ehrlich and Kakacek successfully eke out what is depressingly victorious and ultimately pyrrhic about abandoning the homestead for the mirage of greener pastures.

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