From Robyn on Patreon in 2022
It’s autumn, getting on for winter. Crisp but not too cold. You’re alone, pacing the streets of an ancient European city. You turn off the main boulevard, where the bars are closing, and try to lose yourself in the wealthy residential backstreets: almost as if you’re trying to shake off someone who’s tailing you. Here the avenues are still broad, but so quiet that you hear your footsteps echoing back at you from the masonry around you. Each passing streetlamp throws your shadow on the brickwork, stomping along beside you. It’s getting foggy behind you, as the road tapers winds uphill.

But you’re not as alone as you think. The cast-iron clanking of a streetcar catches your ear: it’s shrouded in the mist, although its cyclops headlamp is just becoming visible. It looms into view, a stately metal galleon with its upper deck windows all glowing red. Downstairs the blinds are drawn, reflecting back the stark yellow streetlights. The motorman’s window is opaque - you can’t see who is at the controls. There’s music wafting through from upstairs, though it’s not like any music you’ve heard before: a kind of jazz heartbeat…

The fog grows thicker, throwing its tendrils around you and the tram as it slows down. The tram is equal parts comforting and ominous. You can’t help noticing there’s nothing written in the destination board; still, you have coins in your purse. And - guess what? You’re standing right by a trolley stop. The night air is starting to chill your indoor skin. The tram halts, oddly silent. The door at the front folds open. Might as well climb aboard…

This song was written and recorded in Nashville in 2020. Patrick Sansone added keyboards and some cool, atmospheric synth effects. Tristen Gaspadarek and Buddy Hughen donated some harmonies to bolster my own. Back in London, I played the harmonica. Tubby oversaw the basic guitar/vocal track, and Charlie Francis mixed it all in Cardiff.