“Summer In Galt” is the first single in five years from Sky Is Alright, the LA/UK-based project of Rishi Neal Arora (Signal Hill, WESAYYES) and his longtime collaborator/childhood friend Chris Gregory (Belted Sweater), along with other collaborators. You might ask, but Will, where is Galt? And I would tell you that the where is less important that what Galt represents.
The single marks the first release from the band’s upcoming album FINITE., out November 4th. The second record has spent quite a few years in the wings, as Arora wrote it back in 2022 in the wake of his sister’s death. Mournfulness runs through the tracks, especially “Summer In Galt”, in which Arora tells the story of visiting his dying grandmother in the early ’90s. He ties it to the feelings that bubbled up when his sister passed thirty years later, examining the strange ways in which grief manifests throughout life.
In this case, Galt represents not just a fixed location on the planet, but a fixed place in the brain where grief lives forever. “The summer in Galt, I can’t forget”, Arora repeats in the song’s outro. How many different locations of grief remain etched into our own brains? How many times do we drive past signs for cities and towns where we can no longer visit without opening some heavy doors? How often do those doors just keep getting heavier?
“Summer In Galt” is a solid track that pours grief into shoegaze riffs, grunge breakdowns, and a cathartic bridge where Arora and Gregory throw everything they have into the music. It serves as a fantastic preview to FINITE., marking the first of many songs about mortality, memory, and what it means to mourn. Take a listen to “Summer In Galt” below.
Written by Will Sisskind
