Jerome Forde and (weewerk) have released the new single “Caroline”, out today on all streaming platforms and given an early preview on Bandcamp. It appears alongside an official video. “Caroline” builds off the highly personalized Americana sound of Forde’s first two albums, Jerome Forde (2023) and Wintertide Blues (2024), while also exploring new sonic directions.

Forde prefers to work with layered instrumentation, complex vocal harmonies, and mono recording and that gives the new single a vintage feel. The first three verses of the song “tell of a love gone wrong” but Forde also makes sure that “love gets the last word.” The track ambitiously features synth organs, banjo, and a seven-part vocal harmony, among other elements.

Like Forde’s other releases, the new single plays with mood in an intricate way. While the heavy ideas of a relationship where love has been lost, maybe for both parties, is introduced, the ambiguity of the mood keeps a questioning tone in mind. Is it just a possibility or a reality? Both characters in our story seem to endure hard times, but that endurance may unlock the mystery, a secret outcome, like an answer or an explanation that may come “in time.” The song could be seen as reassuring, and it has some of the qualities of a lullabye, like repetition, but Forde’s bright layers and almost psychedelic guitar work suggest that state of mind might be the most important thing, a kind of solution.

Forde’s lo-fi, beachy video also makes a great medium for experiencing the song, with its drifting scarves, dancing, movement of clouds and water surrounding a female figure who seems at times contemplative, at times actively killing time. That suits the narrative well where an answer, if there is one, seems to be always on the horizon but not yet fully achieved.

Forde has said the two greatest influences on his songwriting have been Townes Van Zandt and The Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson, and with “Caroline”, you may see the ways in which he manages to bring those elements together.