WHITNEY DROP NEW SINGLE 'BACK TO THE WIND'

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Image: Alexa Viscius.

There’s a quiet confidence to Whitney’s new single Back To The Wind. Not in volume, but in intention. Released alongside a laid-back skate video by Alex Pennacchia, the track marks a turning point for the Chicago duo, who are preparing to release their fourth album, Small Talk, on November 7. Where past work has leaned into overt emotional clarity, this new single embraces the opposite: space, subtlety, and the strength of what’s left unsaid.

Sonically, Back To The Wind finds Whitney doing what they do best: warm, analog textures, soft falsetto melodies, and guitar work that straddles nostalgia and precision. Lyrically however, there is a shift. For a band long associated with carefully tethered sentimentality, this feels like a loosening of the grip.

“I think what’s stuck with me most about Back To The Wind is the way the imagery ended up unfolding across the instrumental,” says drummer and vocalist Julien Ehrlich. “In the past we’ve always insisted that each word on a lyric sheet so deliberately leads you back to the sentiment of the hook that it almost leaves no room for imagination. With ‘BTTW’ it felt more compelling to steer the second half into a series of images that might mean something different to each person that hears it. And since this was the first song we wrote for the record I think it informed the way we pushed ourselves to explore and dig deeper lyrically overall. Also Max’s guitar solo goes crazy.”

That solo - fuzzed-out and ecstatic - provides the emotional release the track only hints at elsewhere. It's a flash of chaos in an otherwise composed landscape, underscoring the duo’s renewed willingness to let things unravel a little.

The single also arrives amid a busy run of international touring. Whitney will return to Australia for the first time since Laneway 2017, with a trio of October dates including Brisbane’s Crowbar (16th), Melbourne’s Corner Hotel (17th), and a slot at SXSW Sydney (18th).

Small Talk is set to be Whitney’s most affecting work to date. A return to form, but also a departure from the tightly-woven lyricism that defined their earlier records. If Back To The Wind is the blueprint, this is a band no longer preoccupied with being perfectly understood. Perhaps instead, they are more interested in how ambiguity can create resonance.

Back To The Wind is out now.