‘Summer In Galt’ opens with the feeling of something already slipping away. Throughout their latest offering, Sky Is Alright capture the slower process of memory changing shape, where a place or season becomes permanently tied to the person who is no longer there.
It’s a sense of absence that’s built directly into the arrangement. Rishi Neal Arora’s soft vocal sits almost suspended inside layers of distorted guitar, creating a contrast that gives the song its emotional pull. It’s hazy, blurred and slightly disorientating, as though the track is trying to hold onto something that cannot quite be brought back into focus.
As the opening track to their new album FINITE., the balance between weight and uplift feels particularly important. The album was written in the aftermath of Rishi’s sister’s death, and ‘Summer In Galt’ introduces that story without trying to explain everything at once. It simply establishes grief as something ongoing, something that leaks into places, seasons and ordinary moments.
For Rishi and longtime collaborator Chris Gregory, the song also represents a more mature use of the sound they have been developing together. Here, distortion and layered guitars now become part of the emotional language of the record.
‘Summer In Galt’ is heavy without being crushing and intimate without feeling exposed. More than anything, it understands that grief rarely moves in a straight line. Sky Is Alright capture that uncertainty with impressive restraint, turning memory, distortion and melody into a deeply affecting opening chapter for FINITE..