Arlo McKinley Finds Redemption In A Scorched Earth On “To Die For” [Listen]

Arlo McKinley returned on Wednesday with “To Die For”, the sophomore single from his upcoming album, This Mess We’re In. The Cincinnati, OH singer-songwriter’s follow-up to Die Midwestern, his acclaimed 2020 debut, is due out on July 15th via John Prine‘s Oh Boy Records.

This Mess We’re In is a record of redemption, and “To Die For” turns McKinley’s scope outward. Our societal guilt surrounding war and desolation is examined amidst roaring organ passages as McKinley takes us to where “The streets forever stained with our blood / In a town where dreams surely come to die.”

“I’m private with a lot of things I go through, but in my songs, I’m honest about everything,” McKinley said of the new album. “So I started to write as a way of getting stuff out. To me, This Mess We’re In is a growth record. I was navigating through a pretty bad time, but also there was the realization that it’s time to really change. My last album was me figuring out whether to stay or go from a very confused spot in my life. This one is trying to better myself—as a musician, as a human being, as a friend. I hope listeners can identify with the things they’re too ashamed to talk about or feel. There’s such a stigma that goes along with things like addiction and mental health. I just want them to know that I go through all of that too. At least for the 47 minutes of the album, you can remove yourself from the world and just let everything disappear for a bit.”

Check out the lyric video for the new Arlo McKinley single, “To Die For”:

https://youtu.be/cagj-R88LcM