Sluice – Beadie
North Carolina four-piece Sluice return with “Beadie,” the opening track from their third album Companion. Built on a plaintive melody written in an electrician’s workshop-turned-practice space, the song pairs guitars with fiddle and layered vocals to create something both mournful and hopeful.
Singer-songwriter Justin Morris started writing “Beadie” while living in a Hillsborough farmhouse with bassist Oliver Child-Lanning. They converted an old electrician’s workshop into a practice space, where Morris first worked out the “splinter” line that anchors the song’s chorus. That detail contrasts with the fuller sound the band achieves in the final minutes, as churning guitars and throbbing drums build beneath wistful vocals.
Morris cites Bruce Springsteen as a major influence on this record, particularly after covering “the Boss” for his 30th birthday party. UK band Caroline also shaped the album’s direction, showing how to push into avant-garde territory while staying listenable. The result develops the sound Morris and Child-Lanning established on 2023’s Radial Gate, layering singer-songwriter influences like Bill Callahan alongside fuller instrumentals.
The lyrics blend fictional TV relationships with real ones, all swirling together in Morris’s attempt to capture feelings of alienation from love and the search for genuine connection. Characters like McNulty and Beadie, Joe Pera and Sara drift through the song without specifics, leaving room for listeners to fill in their meanings.
Recorded at Betty’s in Orange County, NC, the track features Morris on guitar, piano, synth, and lead vocals, with Oliver Child-Lanning handling bass, shruti, and organ, Avery Sullivan on drums and nylon guitar, and Libby Rodenbough on fiddle. Alli Rogers engineered and mixed, adding Echoplex, bells, and harmony vocals.
Tracklist:
- Beadie
- Ratchet Strap
- WTF
- Gator
- The Ephemeral Stream
- Torpor
- Unknowing
- Overhead
- Zillow
- Vegas
