“I miss it, but I don’t want it back,” sings Cub Sport lead vocalist Tim Nelson on the Brisbane band’s new single, “Replay” — an honest admission that’s often difficult to actually implement into our lives. But “‘Replay’ is about moving forward,” he says, recognizing how “feelings aren’t always as simple as just leaving something behind and never looking back. You can long for something and not want it at the same time. You can love something, but outgrow it.”
Like the empathetic build of a 1975 track or glistening, emotional undercurrent of Robyn’s greatest hits, Cub Sport’s latest release sparkles with the warmth of new beginnings once you finally leave the past behind. “I still think about you wherever you are, I just hope you’re free,” Nelson whispers on the spoken verses, as bubbling house production helps tell the larger story. “It’s about shifting from a feeling of longing to feeling free,” he explains.
The music video, premiering today on PAPER, pulls inspiration from 2004’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which depicted a couple undergoing medical procedures to have each other erased from their memories forever. Nelson, who self-directed and edited this queer update, says he “had a specific vision for how I wanted the video to reflect the feeling of the song — breaking out of a life on loop to reach for that moment of connection and freedom.”
In the video, Nelson is shown in search of a reunion with his partner and bandmate Sam Netterfield, as if sifting through hazy, distorted memories. There’s a mix of raw snapshots where they never quite reach each other and, of course, those moments of bliss where our history gets romanticized despite the pain it may have brought us in that moment. An open exploration of yearning and connection, “Replay” is a welcome follow-up to the clean, euphoria of “Always Got The Love.”
Photo courtesy of James Caswell
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