Photo by Betsey Carroll

“‘The song is not deep; the lyrics are essentially ‘I love music,” says Her New Knife guitarist and vocalist Edgar Atencio of the Philadelphia band’s new single “lyre”. Though desire is stated with obvious intent throughout, these pages are going to have to debate him on the notion that there isn’t really much to dig into with this listen, because there is.

It’s been over a year since we caught up with the band’s debut album and its accompanying deluxified remix EP, chrome is lullaby, and as they’ve spent the in-between touring, growing in the shadows, and further refining a path that mediates noisy constructions and lush terrains, their rage-baiting in calling this “a simple and beautiful pop song” is actually just as innovative as it’s their approach to turning art rock into its own form of classical music.

The sonic webwork is articulate — downtempo percussion doubles as a foundational layer as scintillating guitars dalliance through its cataclysmic murk by the guidelight of piano. “Desire, that scrapes instead of holds
It crashes through me, titanium,” Atencio undertones. “This lyre, she sings me into lull / I want everything to be this simple.” Though far from that, that their focus on the instrument remains meticulous even when surrounded by a clash in sound is a wonderful oddity to behold.

Her New Knife’s “lyre” single is available now Julia’s War.