A delicately expansive collection of chamber folk, the new album from Paper Beat Scissors reaches to far-off wonderment and far-in feelings with ease. Parallel Line explores all the mess and complexity inherent in our day-to-day existence with a quiet, wide-eyed vulnerability. This third full length, mixed by heavyweights Sandro Perri and Dean Nelson (Beck), centres Tim Crabtree’s arresting vocal work and reflective lyrical palette to stunning effect. Each song’s movement is threaded by gorgeous string arrangements, weaving an emotional core to the record. At its centre sits a question: how is our sense of self strung within a multitude of people, places, experiences? Parallel Line unfurls as a series of (un)certainties, shot through with a visceral tenderness.
"Australian indie folk rock band The Paper Kites release their highly anticipated sixth album - At The Roadhouse.
The song and production background began when the band created a roadhouse in rural Australia, performing an unannounced month-long residency in the small Victorian town of Campbells Creek, whilst working on their sixth record. The atmosphere of the live performance is recreated with pedal steel and crooning vocals and harmonies. The song lyrics reminisce of a romance still as alive as a blue flame.
""We had talked about this for years” Sam Bentley explains, ""We were drawn to the idea of holding up in a town somewhere and playing the evenings as a house band. The Roadhouse became this place for us.""
Expanding their line-up, the five members of The Paper Kites recruited three extra musicians to make up their roadhouse band, including multi-instrumentalist Matt Dixon - who's weeping pedal steel features on the track - as well as Hannah Cameron and Chris Panousakis."
The Paper Kites have long been the quiet soundtrack to modern life--songs that slip into weddings, road trips, and late-night reflections with an intimacy that feels deeply personal. Their breakout single "Bloom" became a global phenomenon, inspiring billions of streams and even a luminous cover by Kelly Clarkson, while their music has underscored cultural touchstones like Grey's Anatomy, This Is Us, and Virgin River.
Along the way, they've quietly influenced a new generation of songwriters, with artists like Zach Bryan and Lizzie McAlpine citing them as inspiration. Now, with their seventh studio album If You Go There, I Hope You Find It, The Paper Kites reaffirm their place as one of the most quietly influential bands of their time. "When the Lavender Blooms" is a tender meditation on letting love and joy in after seasons of distance. "Every Town" traces the haunting ways memory and longing follow us wherever we go. And "Change of the Wind" offers both a personal and universal plea--that while we can't alter everything around us, we can change ourselves. Threaded with the band's hallmark harmonies and understated beauty, the album is an invitation to pause, reflect, and rediscover something true.