It's time to slow down and face your feelings in the best way with this new single from Cincinatti-based band Sungaze. “House on the Hill” is a dreamgaze masterpiece that gives us the image we need in the title alone - - you’re driving past your old house and old memories, things start subtle and build into a vast and all-encompassing emotion as you drive further.

Comforting, soft, and heartfelt vocals paired with the reverb-heavy ambient lead guitar melodies give us the space to swim around in that ocean of introspection that many people experience, specifically in the winter months right now. The lyrics cut right to the point, real and vulnerable - it’s about the feeling of heartbreak, those silent sobs alone, and the devastating realization that you can’t undo the past even if you wanted to.

“So this is heartbreak.

Ground open,

and swallow me whole.

I wanna scream at the world.

But nothing is coming out”

Go ahead and try not to get emotional listening to this song.

The band tells us: “It’s always interesting to see how your relationship to a song changes over time. When Ian first sent me the instrumental track on a rainy November night in 2023, I actually hated it. We were writing for our third album [Sungaze] at the time, and I remember just feeling like it wasn’t right at all. The next day, the melody was stuck in my head. The following day, some words began to form along with a vocal line. On the third day, I found myself driving around town with the song on repeat, singing different ideas over the top. By the end of that drive, I had lyrics for the whole song.”

This is for fans of fellow shoegaze/dream pop acts like Beach Fossils and Slow Pulp. There’s also something nostalgic about “House on the Hill” that will take you back to a certain familiarity and angst in iconic Y2K albums like “Let Go” by Avril Lavigne.