“Push/Pull” is a riveting alt-rock single from Charlottesville, VA-based artist Chloë Ester. Balancing singer-songwriter intimacy with a dynamic full-band edge, the track fuses textured guitar tones and shoegaze warmness to anchor a bittersweet narrative confronting break-up lingering pain, digital-age vulnerability, and scarred feelings of emotional inadequacy.

“Last month I saw you at the grocery store,” a lush vocal retrospection lets out, then shifting to an “I remembered” recollection of another season and time that suggests a lingering pain following a break-up. Hazy, twangy guitar tones coexist with a steady rhythm section during the contemplatively gripping build-up, embracing a playful guitar-laden pulsation past the first minute as the vocals admit “I hate that you still make me feel inadequate.”

The vocal presence is especially consuming in its dream-state allure. “I dreamt last night that I was running,” Ester’s lush vocal precision continues, acknowledging the sustained emotion as present even in a non-awake state. The track’s final minute is exhilarating as well, adding a jangly guitar layering as the vocals reach a “tore me apart” emotional ferocity, reminding fondly of Japanese Breakfast in its melancholic, melodic rock disposition. A title-referencing “pushing me away, or pulling me…” then concludes the effort with heart-on-sleeve prowess, cementing a surefire success from Chloë Ester.

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This and other tracks featured this month can be streamed on the updating Obscure Sound’s ‘Emerging Singles’ Spotify playlist.

We discovered this release via MusoSoup.

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