01. Let Love Wait
02. God Knows
03. Let Me Die With A Smile On My Face
04. What I Said
05. Fade
06. Hold Fast
Essential Tracks: Let Me Die With a Smile on My Face, God Knows, Hold Fast
RIYL: The Church, The Smiths, Echo & the Bunnymen, R.E.M. (if they were from Dallas)
Indie veterans The Simpletons resurface with a lush, bittersweet gem in Let Love Wait, a six-track EP that wraps heartbreak in shimmer, and despair in defiance.
After their 2023 comeback EP Trampling Roses and a haunting standalone single “Cold in the Daylight,” The Simpletons return with a new body of work that feels both urgent and unhurried—like a love letter dropped in the mail 30 years ago that finally arrived. Let Love Wait is a rare thing: a reunion project that doesn’t just bask in nostalgia, but sharpens its edges with new life.
Opening with the title track, “Let Love Wait” channels the spectral jangle of The Smiths and the melodic melancholy of The Church, whose former guitarist Marty Willson-Piper helmed production. The result is sleek but weathered—songs that glisten but never sparkle too clean. Vocalist Nathan Fynn leans into the poetic ache of lines like “Dreams are all I have again,” while Brian McMurtry’s delicate guitar work lends a sense of eerie lift-off, like a carousel turning just out of reach.
Second track “God Knows” is all fire and fallout. With lyrics like “God knows I tried, just the will to be alone,” it pulls from the same spiritual anguish that defined post-punk’s golden age. The song teeters on the edge of melodrama but never topples—thanks to a taut arrangement and Kari Campbell’s restrained, sparkling keyboard flourishes.
“Let Me Die With a Smile on My Face” is the band’s unexpected centerpiece—a sardonic, dreamy daydream of privilege, death, and absurdity wrapped in a campy, existential wink. It’s as if Jarvis Cocker got lost in the Australian outback and stumbled into a synth-laced funeral dirge. The melody is buoyant; the lyrics are subversively funny. It’s brilliant. Neil Finn and David Byrne would both be proud.
The back half of the EP dives deeper into emotional terrain. “What I Said” and “Fade” are breakup songs that feel almost too emotionally accurate. The former is a conversation frozen in amber—beautifully circular in its phrasing, haunted by what wasn’t said. “Fade,” meanwhile, offers a slow-burn catharsis. Kari Campbell singling, “Are you waiting for an invitation or an exit sign?” is a question that stings with familiarity.
Closer “Hold Fast” is a quiet stunner. It feels like sunrise after a sleepless night, bruised but still breathing. “Whatever chases you down / I’m in between you,” they sing, and it’s both a promise and a prayer.
The Simpletons have done something that few reunited indie acts manage: they’ve made a record that doesn’t just reflect their past, but refracts it into something beautiful and broken for right now. Let Love Wait may not shout its brilliance—but it doesn’t have to. It just lingers. Like a name you forgot you remembered.
https://artists.landr.com/056870617602
https://thesimpletons.bandcamp.com
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