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Oct 17, 2022 By Caleb Campbell

Later next month, Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter Katy Rea is set to return with her debut full-length album, The Urge That Saves You. Offering up a record full of “premonitions, prayers, and warnings,” Rea has crafted her own take on darkly layered indie singer/songwriter rock with her debut, pulling from touchstones like Angel Olsen or Widowspeak. Ahead of the record’s release, she has shared a pair of singles, “We Come Back” and “Lord Try,” and today she’s back with the record’s third and final single, “Happiness.”

With “Happiness” Rea hits all the right notes, balancing between subtle snaking hooks, gorgeously lush production, and intimate confessional songwriting. Rea meditates on the search for happiness, trying to carve a space for peace within herself even as she finds a war raging within. But for as insular as the track is, it shines with ghostly harmonies and plush instrumentation, lending the track a gently glowering beauty as it winds through toward its end.

Rea explains of the track, “When I was writing ‘Happiness’ I was looking for a kind home within myself. I was one of these people who gave tender guidance to friends but couldn’t follow my own advice. I had the idea that living as a songwriter was inherently chaotic, a constant battle with sadness, and mysterious rendezvous. I realized this mindset was built on fear and false heroes; you can only read so much Rimbaud before thinking maybe there’s a healthier way. I realized finding self respect had to do with taking actions that really reflected my values. I began to reroute, to organize, and finally made a plan to record. Getting the songs out of my room was the thing that saved me.

Making The Urge that Saves You gave me personal agency and a peace that I had never known. It taught me that my fear of not being good enough really didn’t matter; I’d survive it thru doing, thru making, thru collaborating and slowly the fear would quiet to almost nothing. When I listen to “Happiness” I can hear her digging out of an old and cruel system of belief. ‘If you could know war may be coming from the inside, if you could know love may be hollowed out before her, before him.’ This song is about taking responsibility. And In a way it was a kind of premonition, the message came before I knew what I needed to be happy but now it is very clear.”

Check out the song below. The Urge That Saves You is out November 11th.