Since his 2016 debut, Izzy Heltai has used his music to speak candidly about love and pain, and to remark on the natural beauty that he immerses himself in. “Marching Song”, his latest single, follows the release of last year’s EP, Sweet Apathy, in which Heltai unpacked his struggles with depression, and the resultant dissolution of his relationship.
“Marching Song” finds Heltai still struggling with the aftermath of his breakup, recounting his search for the strength to end the failing relationship, his mental anguish having driven an immovable wedge between them. “I couldn’t tell you on the telephone/you picked it up, I put it down I don’t know why,” he sings, “that I’m not myself anymore.”
Upon first listen, there is hope that in “Marching Song” Heltai has found healing from the difficulties that plagued him on Sweet Apathy. Its measured, classic folk feel evoke images of the idyllic Western Massachusetts that has influenced much of his work. The steady rhythm over which Heltai builds his sweeping melody feels freeing and spacious, like the constant thrum of nature. The sonorous tenor of his voice is difficult to immediately classify as mournful, but his words lay unmistakably bare his suffering. Heltai’s march does not describe the comfortable return to routine after emotional upset, but rather the heartbreaking cycle of dead ends in a doomed partnership.
On Sweet Apathy, Heltai was positioned on the precipice of the end of his relationship, prepared to break ties but still struggling to do so. Now, he finds himself suspended in painful repetition. As he walks away from his partner, he reflects on the exhausting reoccurrence of disappointment, whether in this relationship or those before it that were similar. “Now here I go leaving,” he sighs. “Again, oh again.”
“Marching Song” is the first single from Izzy Heltai’s upcoming album Only Yesterday, set to release on April 19th, 2019. You can keep up with Izzy via Facebook, Instagram, and Spotify, and be sure to check out his upcoming tour dates below.
April 12 – Club Passim, Cambridge, MA
April 13 – Equinunk Historical Society, Equinunk, PA
April 14 – The Shea Theater, Turners Falls, MA
April 19 – Common Folk Gallery, North Adams, MA
April 20 – Urban Farm Fermentory, Portland, ME
April 28 – The Parlor Room, Northampton, MA
May 2 – Casa Del Popolo, Montreal, QC
May 3 – Bar Robo, Ottawa, ON
May 4 – The Garnet, Petersborough, ON
May 5 -Burdock, Toronto, ON
May 7 – Sitwells Coffeehouse, Cincinnati, OH
May 9 – Sacred Springs Kombucha, Grand Rapids, MI
May 10 – The Root Note, La Crosse, WI
May 11 – Picasso’s, St. Charles, MI
May 13 – Miner Brewing Company, Hill City, SD
May 14 – Black Tooth Brewery, Sheridan WY
May 16 – The Laughing Goat, Boulder, CO
May 17 – La Plaza Inn, Walsenberg, CO
May 18 – Little Horse Books, Fort Collins, CO
May 19 – Little Toad Creek Brewery, Las Cruces, NM
