There's a Bluebird + it's Running Red Lights in My Heart

Running Red Lights is the 500 Days of Summer of indie folk. And most indie folk acts are pretty darn cute. We'd better tell them to stahp. But not really. Because let's be honest: we've been listening to them / watching that blasted film this whole time.

Aged seven years, like a full-bodied wine, Scarlett and Dave and Kevin and Jeff release their first album together, There's a Bluebird in My Heart. It's the quintessential "winter thaws into spring", the "baby it's cold outside"... the "picture perfect barnyard wedding" album. In the rock department, there's some audible Fleetwood Mac influence on "Under the Wire" and a Zooropa-esque intro with raspy Bono-style vocals on "Run Away". We're particularly fond of "Dear Liza", "Boxcar Telegrams", and "A Damn Good Way to Go".



This sampler, featuring "Under the Wire" and "In Parentheses", will be available till February 14th. The band will also be throwing a release party at Theatre Passe Muraille Cabaret in Toronto on January 31st, 2014.

Running Red Light's irresistible "Mulberry Love"

Take note, Robin Thicke.

There's something incredibly sensual about Running Red Lights's latest single, a wayward serenade about an unnamed siren's "Mulberry Love". Kevin Howley's wanton confessions carries over David Puzak's folksy guitar accompaniment, blending flawlessly with Scarlett Flynn's angelic voice. There's no blurriness, no mistaking the meaning behind the lyrics to "Mulberry Love"'s opening verse:

She is bare on my red velvet chair flung out like a rug
And though I know she is barbed like a wire, I am tempted to touch
She's a lady of shipwrecks, my God, how she hurts
But as a man I am damned with desire for her

It's a feeling we can all relate to, whether we are currently prone to or currently in need of her. She may be the hottest bitch in the room, but RRL gets it right: she's not an animal, but a shrine. And she's absolutely shining.

After half a decade in the music industry, or skirting around it, Running Red Lights is due to release their debut full-length album at the start of 2014--and we'll be watching. Download "Mulberry Love" below, check out their West Coast tour dates, and bask in Howley and Flynn's autumnal sun.



Sounds like: City and Colour, Bon Iver.