I can’t quite put a finger on what it is about Quiet Houses‘ music that appeals to me. It’s the sort of gentle, emo-adjacent dream-pop that I hear a dozen versions of in a week, and almost immediately forget. But their latest single “New Obsession” hit my radar a couple of weeks ago and, well, it’s titled accurately:

Quiet Houses are a pair of musicians from Manchester named Jamie Stewart and Hannah Elliott. They share a label¹ with other artists that toe the line of the guilty pleasure², Swim School and Lizzie Esau.

There’s a warm and soothing sound to “New Obsession”, but the lyrics and delivery are what pulled me in. Elliot soft voice sings in a tone so casual it sounds like someone messing around in the kitchen, rejecting the world to spend time with the new thing. It’s a themesong for introverts:

Are you coming out tonight?

No I think that’s out of the question

Are you gonna be alright?

Yeah I don’t know what you’re suggesting

Spending all my life inside

I don’t know where you got that impression

Cuz it opened up my eyes

I think I got a new obsession

Can’t get enough of that song.

It’s not the only one, either. Quiet Houses has released two other songs this year, including “What My Heart is For” from January, which sounds like it’d fit in on any episode of The O.C.:

The third single of 2024, April’s “Call You Later” is a lot more melancholy than the other two, but the unique songwriting is here too:

Quiet Houses has been releasing music since 2021, but they seem to have found their current sound on their 2023 EP Since July. That’s a truly lovely collection of songs, and the centrepiece of that is another potential teen-drama soundtrack anchor called “Hot and Clumsy”:

It’s a lot more heartfelt than you expect with a title like that.

I couldn’t find any announcement about what these releases are leading upt0, and EP or album, but whatever it is, I’m sure you’ll see it on the Friday playlist.

1 Get your own Bandcamp, guys! (back)

2 I don’t believe in guilty pleasures (back)

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