Song People have a new single out, and it is called “The Cone.” The Philly band released the track as their second single from Tho I Seem Tame, their upcoming album due October 9 on Strange Mono. The song follows “Silver Flag,” the lead single, which showed off the band’s blend of jangle-pop, dream-pop, post-punk, and folk.
“The Cone” arrives with a story attached to it. Singer Shaina Kapeluck wrote the song after a trip to Brattleboro, Vermont, during a season called “blackberry winter,” the final cold snap before spring. She remembers the moment vividly.
“It felt as if time were moving in reverse.”
Brattleboro Trip
Kapeluck’s memory of the trip forms the core of the song. The cold was not just weather; it felt like a shift in how time moved. That sense of time running backward is the idea the band built the record around.
The single continues a pattern of songs tied to specific places and moments. Kapeluck’s trips keep showing up in the band’s catalog, and this one is no different. Each trip she takes becomes a source for the material that ends up on record, and “The Cone” follows that same path.
The Band’s Sound
Song People mix jangle-pop, dream-pop, post-punk, and folk into their sound. The lead single “Silver Flag” gave listeners a taste of that blend, and “The Cone” keeps it going.
The comparison is a little odd, but it fits. The song draws on the idea of Fairport Convention as a C86 band, which is not what they were. The joke works because the music sounds like it could fit that alternate history.
| Element | Description |
|---|---|
| Genre | Jangle-pop, dream-pop, post-punk, folk |
| Lead single | “Silver Flag” |
| New single | “The Cone” |
| Album title | Tho I Seem Tame |
| Release date | October 9 |
Blackberry Winter
Blackberry winter is the final cold snap before spring sets in. It happens when the season turns from winter toward spring, and the cold lingers as a last-ditch hold on winter before spring arrives.
Kapeluck’s trip to Brattleboro took place during that period. The cold was not just unpleasant weather; it carried a particular weight. She described the moment as one where time felt like it was moving backward.
That description lands right in the middle of the song’s sound. The band’s music has a pleasing frigidity to it, and this song captures that feeling in a way that feels specific.
The Timeline Idea
The comparison to Fairport Convention being a C86 band is a joke, but it points somewhere useful. C86 was a scene in England in the mid-1980s, full of bands making guitar-based pop music.
Fairport Convention, by contrast, were a British folk-rock group from the 1960s. They are not known for C86-style music. The joke works because the music itself sits between those two worlds.
The song’s sound is dreamy and jangly, with a folk edge. It is the kind of music that could have come from either era, depending on how you hear it.
Listening to “The Cone”
The song is available now. Listeners can hear it and let the late-breaking cold wash over them.
The album Tho I Seem Tame is out October 9 on Strange Mono. Fans who want to hear the whole record can pre-order it ahead of the release.
The Verdict
“The Cone” is a strong second single. It carries the story of Kapeluck’s trip to Brattleboro and the feeling of blackberry winter, and it does so in a way that matches the band’s sound.
The song is a reminder that memory can shape music just as much as chords and melodies can. Kapeluck’s experience in Vermont became the seed for a track that sounds like it could have come from any decade.
The band’s ability to draw on personal memory while making music that sounds fresh is what makes this record worth waiting for. “The Cone” is a perfect example of that balance.
What stands out is the tension between the song’s subject and its sound. A moment of time seeming to move backward gets turned into music that feels frozen and still. That is the trick the band pulls off here, and it is why “The Cone” works as both a story and a song.
See the a run of 20 images at Stereogum.
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