Coco get all cosy in dreamy new single “Last of the Loving”

Previously declared as a project intended to be experienced “without context, attached persona or distractions” (yes, that’s what we said of their debut “Empty Beach”!), Coco is very much still intended to be an anonymous project. Prioritising capturing an atmosphere over any sense of prestige, the unknown U.S. collective now return with their latest instalment “Last of the Loving”.

In a way that almost seems at odds with the vagueness of their entity, their music is unerringly intimate and personable, striking a dreamy sound that is wholly encapsulating. Their slow vulnerability was showcased with aplomb in the aforementioned “Empty Beach”, but the band show a warmer side to their introspection with their latest release.

Striking a surefooted momentum and relaxing tone with its lackadaisically squirming guitar work, “Last of the Loving” conjures thoughts of warmer climes, carefree ease and a life devoid of outside obligation. Whilst it may have been but a daydream of peaceful freedom, its sentiment came a little closer to home in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Traversing from homes to gather at a friend’s empty studio in Nashville, Coco holed up together in late February to collectively write and record. “We didn’t prepare any material for the session - we wanted every song to begin from the ground up with the three of us together.," they share. "And because we can trade off engineering duties, we kept to the idea of a self-sustaining, self-sufficient creative trio. For eight days we cooked, slept, wrote, and recorded in the house, breaking only for grocery runs.”

Lyrically, the track examines the all-consuming dynamic of a new love and the tests that occur when you are so emotionally involved, yet still getting to know someone. “‘Last of the Loving’ portrays the feelings and sentiments of a blossoming relationship,” the band explain. “The world turns and moves while you exist in a new little bubble - ‘holing up and watching movies while you sleep / the sun glows on the curtain and a month is like a week.’

“Unwittingly, two weeks before the Covid lockdown began, we wrote a song about the intimacy of quarantine, with all its attendant blessings and curses,” Coco continue. “In this quarantine era, relationships of all sorts have been tested to the limits, many have ended, and against all odds many have begun. All three of us have entered or exited relationships during the lockdown, which makes this recording feel particularly prophetic and poignant from the perspective of summer 2020."