LOS ANGELES, CA- I’ve been following Annabelle Chairlegs since 2017, the first year I made the trek out to Austin, TX for SXSW. They were one of the first bands I got to see when I arrived, and they’ve stuck with me ever since. Even after all these years, there’s still something magnetic about Lindsey Mackin’s world. It’s a combination of playfulness, raw grit, and sly confidence that somehow turns chaos into charm. She’s cycled through bandmates over the years, but her musical energy has always been the true constant. And maybe it’s that spirit, that mischievous pulse, that’s kept me hooked for nearly a decade.
Her new single “Concrete Trees” carries that same spark that first pulled me in. It’s the latest look at her upcoming project, Waking Up, due out next year on TODO and produced by Ty Segall, who clearly knows how to tap into Mackin’s blend of strange beauty and restless edge. Compared to her last release, “Ice Cream on the Beach”, which leaned mellow and wistful, “Concrete Trees” feels more alive: a little more cracked, funny, and human.
The lyrics to Concrete Trees are simple and hypnotic: “Are you with me? Sitting next to me… and the air is concrete, and the trees are a real bright green.” Mackin turns these images into something vivid and surreal, like the heat shimmer on a Texas afternoon. And then there’s that line that kills me: “As you get old you get better, and as you get better feel worse.” It’s the kind of lyric that sneaks up on you, clever, funny, sad, and a little too true.
What I love most is how Concrete Trees captures the balance that’s always defined Lindsey and Annabelle Chairlegs: that ability to be funny and poignant, cool and chaotic, in the same breath. The production gives it a little extra bite, but it’s still unmistakably Lindsey, a voice that can sound both detached and deeply connected, like she’s humming through some private joke the rest of us only half understand.
Nine years in, and she’s still finding new ways to surprise me. Maybe I just have a crush on her musical soul, because whenever Annabelle Chairlegs puts something new out, I’m reminded exactly why I fell for her sound in the first place. With Waking Up on the horizon and the next single Heavy Sleeper set to arrive December 2, it feels like her next chapter might be her most exciting one yet.
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