Laura Stevenson has released the second single from her forthcoming LP, The Big Freeze (Don Giovanni), which will be out on March 29th.

According to Stevenson, “The song is about going somewhere deliberately to disappear and to harm yourself – and in that isolated place, the loneliness is so extreme that the world feels completely empty, and you are the only one who can pull yourself back out.” 

If gravity is strong enough, at the end of time our universe will collapse, pulling all of existence back down to infinitesimal size, like before the Big Bang. But if expansion outpaces gravity, eventually the universe will be cold and empty–all light, heat, and connection will be gone. That possibility is called The Big Freeze.

Recorded in her childhood home during the dead of winter, The Big Freeze represents a pivotal step for New York songwriter Laura Stevenson. Despite her pedigree in the punk and indie rock scenes, and the occasional inclusion of a backing band (like the sprightly, C86-inspired pop track “Dermatillomania”), for the first time on record Stevenson’s voice and guitar are in clear and highlighted focus. It is a natural aesthetic choice for the musician, who has often toured as a solo act and who pulls influence from the great American songbook, and a choice that plays to the core strength and organic beauty of her writing. And though it is easily the darkest and most emotionally-devastating album of Stevenson’s career, it is also without a doubt her most powerful.