Product description

Scarlet Rae, a Los Angeles-born, New York City-based artist, began releasing solo tracks in 2020. She quickly developed a style that blends understated acoustic instrumentation with shoegaze melancholy and whispered, effects-laden vocals. To the uninitiated, her quietly understated work might seem to have come out of nowhere.

But she is already an experienced musician, having participated in countless projects since her youth. Rae comes from a family of like-minded individuals who encouraged her to learn guitar from a young age. This led to her performing as her father's opening act in Los Angeles bars and attending concerts with her older sister. In high school, she was the frontwoman of the indie-folk band Rose Dorn, which was very popular in the Los Angeles DIY scene. The trio's sepia-toned debut album, *Days You Were Leaving*, was released in 2019 by Bar/None Records. In late 2024, she signed with Bayonet Records (Mei Seimones, Beach Fossils, Being Dead) and released her first single, "Bleu," which drew comparisons to Alex G.

›No Heavy Goodbyes‹ – Rae's new EP for Bayonet Records – emerged seamlessly after a prolonged creative block. She remains true to her style, but presents rawer textures and a sharper narrative approach. The five songs were refined using unplugged snippets from TikTok. When it was time to formalize the project, Rae developed the songs into self-made demos in her Brooklyn apartment. She then honed the takes in sessions with producer Jordan Lawlor (M83, Oberhofer) in Los Angeles. Rae played the majority of the parts on ›No Heavy Goodbyes‹ herself and cites Placebo as an inspiration.

On this album, Rae's elfin voice is contrasted by razor-sharp distortion. She draws on acceptance, loneliness, and grief—feelings that surfaced after a difficult period marked by loss. "Bleu," released back in December 2024, hinted at the harrowing yet captivating quality of the EP. Against a thorny backdrop of resonant guitar sounds and synthesizer flourishes, Rae pays a haunting tribute to her late sister.

The opener, "A World Where She Left Me," explores the early stages of grief after a death, in which Rae engages in a one-sided conversation with the deceased, expressing a need for solitude amidst the outside world's attention. "The Reason I Could Sleep Forever" articulates the desire to disappear without romanticizing the exhaustion that fuels this temptation. With a vulnerable tremor, No Heavy Goodbyes doesn't shy away from painfully explicit themes, dusting them with hypnotic, haunting sounds. For fans of Momma, Red House Painters, sweet93, skirts, Placebo, Deftones, and Youbet.