Tommy Ashby - “When Love Goes Dark”

Ever since we featured “Not That Far To Go” and “Lifeline,” we have been big fans of Tommy Ashby. And if you follow him on Instagram, you may have caught his cool and astute cover of Gregory Alan Isakov’s “San Luis,” which is simply one of the finest examples of indie folk that ever existed. This brings us to today’s topic of conversation: Ashby’s newest track, “When Love Goes Dark.” Much like the title implies, it is not as uplifting as the other two singles that we’ve hosted on the blog– luckily, we often find ourselves preferring both a darker sound and subject matter.

“When Love Goes Dark” opens up with reverberating hums and shouts, making it obvious that we are about to witness another side to Ashby’s songwriting. This thing is moody and gritty and it’s exactly what we’ve been waiting to hear. Ashby uses his trusty falsetto for the majority of the song, hitting all of the right notes and all of the appropriate emotions as he warns the listener to “Hold on tight to your heart, When love goes dark…” Unlike what we’ve heard in his previous releases, there is some pretty significant fuzz on the guitar in this track– not constantly, but in all of the perfect places. By the time the song nears its conclusion, it has walked the ledge between indie folk and indie rock, giving us a glimpse into Ashby’s darkness and all we can say is that it’s worth the three minutes and thirty-nine seconds that this song carves out of your life.

“When Love Goes Dark” comes from Ashby’s upcoming LP, Lamplighter, scheduled to be released on March 3rd.

-TM