Half Waif's "In August" Is an Ode to Friendship Breakups

It's been argued time and time again that friendship breakups can sting worse than romantic ones.

Even if neither party is to blame, a fizzled companionship can lend itself to mournful guilt. It's these feelings of remorse that drive "In August," the latest single from Half Waif's Nandi Rose. According to the singer/songwriter, the pensive song "tracks the dissolution of a friendship over the course of a year, throughout every season." As she explains in a statement, "There's a particular kind of sadness to a friendship ending when there's no one to blame, just as there's something mournful about the inevitable change of weather. Sometimes it's not a big fight but a gradual growing apart that marks the end—how do we make sense of our role in that? This song is an attempt to recognize and accept mutual culpability in an effort to move on."

"In August" begins with a funereal piano introduction that soon gives way to Half Waif's unique brand of layered, shadowy synth-pop. Looming and somber, the track finds Rose contemplative on both sides of the friendship's end. "I wonder how you've been / Oh, I have lost your friendship / What does that say about me?" she sings. Later: "You've broken your promise / What does that say about you?"

"In August" is neither self-destructive or accusatory, instead weighing the mutual faults between herself and her subject. "If I can own / Up to what I've done / Then I'll get it together / Will you follow?" go the song's final lines, as the instrumentals fade out as seamlessly as a missed connection.

Listen below.

Half Waif - "In August" (Lyric Video)www.youtube.com