If BERWYN’s unparalleled melancholy R&B aesthetic could lend itself to a summer banger, ‘RUBBER BANDS’ would be it. Following up 'I’D RATHER DIE THAN BE DEPORTED’ and ‘100,000,000’, BERWYN returns with ‘RUBBER BANDS’, somewhat unexpectedly, a love song.

BERWYN’s work has tackled weighty, emotional subject matter like depression, loss, and homelessness with brutal honesty. It’s strange to think of a breakup song feeling somehow lighter by comparison, but ‘RUBBER BANDS’ is no kiss off. The song is nuanced, acknowledging regret and the external factors that play a crucial role in tearing love apart, like the suffocating stress of being “flat on our back with no funds.” 

As he demonstrated on his stunning debut album ‘DEMOTAPE/VEGA’, BERWYN is a master of the well-placed sparse piano riff. On ‘RUBBER BANDS’, he stretches each chord out to the edge of its expansively reverbed resonance, creating space and atmosphere for his bittersweet, candid vocal to hit. Part of BERWYN’s brilliance is staying cheeky even in the darkest moments. He delivers the lyric “now another man got his hands on your bum” with a slight break, and he deadpans the extravagantly rolled R in “rubber band,” an ingenious metaphor for being simultaneously entangled and stretched to breaking point, and a flip on the financial flex that bands usually refer to.

The accompanying video, directed by Taz Tron Delix (Stormzy, Headie One), captures this ambivalent headspace with striking visuals that play with our perceptions of time and perspective: vanishing smoke, flipped tower block horizons, burning roses, and intimate memories floating in midair. 

‘RUBBER BANDS’ announced BERWYN’s upcoming project ‘TAPE 2/FOMALHAUT’, out June 18 on Columbia. No doubt this next release will continue to solidify BERWYN’s place as a singular voice in alternative R&B.