Frederick the Younger

We’re all just spinning in circles of time and space. Art-pop band Frederick the Younger lasso various transitory states and tensions of the heart on their upcoming new EP "Fever." Across six songs, the Louisville-based songwriters and real-life couple -- Jenni Cochran and Aaron Craker -- seek for something real and dissects such issues as regret, love and letting go.


In 2018 they found creative kinship in drummer Meg Samples and bassist Shelley Anderson and started working on the followup to 2017's Human Child. Producer Kevin Ratterman (My Morning Jacket, Ray LaMontagne) couples the vivid, visceral lyrics and equally-emotive arrangements with a slick, yet dreamy, quality. And it’s never at the expense of the innately imposing stories. Lead single “Back to the Wall” untangles the push and pull of a relationship that’s undergoing an inner struggle. “You could say you love me / But you leave me with my back to the wall,” Cochran casts off her frustrations as a snake shedding its skin.


Their willingness to be so vulnerable serves as the EP’s foundation. “Erased,” featuring Craker’s magnetic, raw vocal, and “Deepest Blue” are other sterling highlights, the latter witnessing Cochran hitting an emotional rock bottom and writing a song about it. “I hate regretting things I’ve done, and I know when I’m in that space that I shouldn’t be doing it. I waste time, and I get carried away. This song is me trying to sing myself out of that funk,” she says of the song.