Out now on Two Steps Twice, Pleasing’s latest EP ‘for us to feel lonely’ captures the raw, aching isolation of the human condition, spinning it into hazy, melancholic loops, with a live show at Kulturfabrik on January 18th.

It’s the second in a pair of EPs that have emerged from the fog of existential dread and restless nights—the first, ‘for us to escape,’ had its fingers wrapped tightly around the anxiety of running away from the darkness. But this new one? It’s about confronting it.

Where their last release was a sprint away from chaos, ‘for us to feel lonely’ is about standing still in it, letting the loneliness consume, reflect, and reframe the very nature of connection. Like a bad trip that unexpectedly clicks, this EP doesn’t pull any punches. It sits you down, takes a long hard look at the corners of your psyche, and asks you, “How do you live with it?” You know, the pain, the isolation, the whole circus of trauma and desire to connect that never quite lines up.

Pleasing’s sound here isn’t about fluff. It’s gut-wrenching, visceral. The vocals rise and fall like waves crashing over empty streets, with lyrics that sting like they were written on the back of a napkin in some greasy diner at 3 a.m. When they say they’re “confronting the chaos,” they mean it. Their distorted guitars weave into broken melodies that make the angst feel oddly comforting, like you’re not quite so alone in your own skin.

And then there’s the show. If you’re in Luxembourg, they’re bringing the EP to life at Kulturfabrik on January 18th…

At the heart of this record is an invitation. An invitation to not just survive the loneliness, but to feel it, own it, and perhaps, in some strange way, be free because of it. So yeah, it’s sad. It’s lonely. But in that sadness, there’s a flicker of connection. And that, dear reader, might just be what we need.

Headline photo: Yann Gengler

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