Julian Lynch is a pretty busy fellow these days. There’s his upcoming summer tour, his second LP Mare — set to be released on Olde English Spelling Bee in the coming months — and now this new 7″, slated for June, 21st. “Droplet on a Hot Stone” and its B-Side, “Nen Vole,” are actually older songs from Lynch’s first LP, Born 2 Run. They are being re-issued on blue vinyl by Underwater Peoples, along with a CD-R of the entire album.

When you listen to “Droplet on a Hot Stone” and Lynch’s newer material from Mare side-by-side, you can clearly hear his growth as a songwriter. “Droplet on a Hot Stone” is covered in all the distant tape hiss and clicking that you would expect from a song recorded in an artist’s basement. Its overall sound is a good fit for a hazy and hot afternoon where — pardon me for a second — you really just want to “chill.” Julian’s singing is filled with a longing for something more, but also a hope for the future. Julian took the chorus’ melody from a 1939 recording of schoolchildren singing a song called “All Around the Green Apple Tree,” filled with the distant optimism of the tail-end of the Great Depression. Maybe we can all take a page from Lynch’s book and borrow some of that optimism for ourselves.

Julian Lynch, “Droplet on a Hot Stone” (Droplet on a Hot Stone 7″, Underwater Peoples)

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