‘Rabbit Heart’ is the latest single from up-and-coming Cambridge indie punk duo Collars. Following on from their May single ‘Baby I’m Bored’, the tender track precedes their forthcoming album Clyde set for release September 2nd.
Between a packed tour schedule, weekly radio show, and running their own independent label and studio ‘Laundry Rooms’ (named for the laundry cupboard the band started in), it’s hard to imagine any waking hours where Collars would manage to get any recording done. It could be this then that leads to ‘Rabbit Heart’’s dreamy quality.
‘Rabbit Heart’ takes the torch of 2010s Brit-Indie and runs with it. Chugging percussion provides the solid foundations needed for the track’s soft guitar and emotive vocals to dance across. Switching between the bite of a punk edge in its verses, and the more tender vulnerability of its choruses, ‘Rabbit Heart’ demonstrates command over the two genres that have come to define and elevate Collars’ sound.
The single seems to tell of heartbreak from the perspective of someone left by their partner, but it is easy to apply its spirit to a great many scenarios. The emotions ‘Rabbit Heart’ invokes calls to mind the futility of clinging onto something or someone no longer there, and the stubbornness that comes with failing to admit that. At times coming across as a vulnerable plea to have someone stay with you, and at others like a goodbye through gritted-teeth, the track finds its strength in the dualites of its message and indie-punk sound.
‘Rabbit Heart’ feels like Collars summoning the vocals and emotion of Florence Welch, the indie-adjacent sound of mid-noughties Bloc Party, and something new entirely. With two strong singles behind them, and the upcoming album Clyde, Collars are very much one to watch.
Words by Hugo B