Listen to Maddy Kirgo's New Single "Try Harder"

It’s been seven years since Maddy Kirgo independently released her debut album Another Love Song Today on Bandcamp, and now she is back with “Try Harder,” the lead single from her upcoming album Shadow on My Light. The album, a sonic landscape of indie pop, country and folk music, will be released on August 18 via Gar Hole Records and will be the New Orleans-based musician’s label debut. “Try Harder” is a laid-back folksy jam featuring dreamy pedal steel about the fruitlessness of chasing after an idealized version of life, which Kirgo found herself doing during quarantine.

“I started writing this song in February of 2021 as the world was just sort of opening up again, and I was trying to figure out how I wanted to re-enter society,” Kirgo says of “Try Harder.” “It seemed like everyone I followed on social media at the time was thriving, and I was about to start feeling like shit, but then I was like, ‘Oh yeah, none of that is real! Ha! So this is my lament on being a confused young person, just trying my best most of the time. This was the first song I wrote with the intention of it being on a full-length album, and I think it sets the general tone of the record. This is also the first song we recorded. Nick [Corson], Duncan [Troast] and I really got to know each other on this track! We spent hours playing around with sounds and really took our time with it.”

Watch the music video for “Try Harder” and check out the Shadow on My Light artwork and tracklist below.

PREMIERE: Listen to Maddy Kirgo’s New Single “Try Harder”

Shadow on My Light is set to arrive on August 18 via Gar Hole Records.