Today's Song of the Day, as chosen by John Richards, host of The Morning Show on KEXP, is "Run To Stay" by Constant Smiles from the 2021 album Paragons on Sacred Bones.
Since 2009, Constant Smiles have been churning out roughly an album a year, amassing a pretty enormous discography that’s now 15 records deep. Led by Ben Jones, the band is more of a collective, with more than 50 members providing contributions over the past 13 years. While Constant Smiles have tried out a number of varying sounds over the years, their latest release sees the collective join the Sacred Bones family for a 13-track record of dynamic indie rock titled Paragons.
Our Song of the Day is the album’s lead single “Run to Stay,” a mid-tempo strummer with a shimmering, wistful tone. “‘Run To Stay’ is about not being present in the moment, and struggling with antisocial tendencies,” explains Jones. “Like when you’re at a party or talking to someone but you’re only half paying attention to what they’re saying because you can’t stop thinking about other things you need to do. Or when you avoid hanging out with friends because you want to work on music or something, but nothing comes to you so you just end up sitting around all day.”
The song comes with a video self-directed by the band that sees its members traveling separately, in various modes of transportation. Says Jones of the video, “We were trying to capture that anxious feeling of always needing to be somewhere or be doing something else but realizing that it isn’t ever that important.”
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