Monument Valley: Your Cover Blown

This is one of my favourite singles of the year so far: Your Cover Blown.

Simple, evocative, powerful; trading under the nom de guerre Monument Valley, Mancunian Ned Younger certainly knows how to turn a phrase that's sure to draw me in. The sparse guitars and delicate atmospherics set a mood that's at once malevolent yet somehow tender, and the booming, ghostly piano thumps in the chorus - so simple they're hardly there - ground the lyrics so thoroughly that the track instantly feels like something important.

Like all the best pop songs, the lyrics to Your Cover Blown sound both disarmingly specific and impossibly ambiguous all at the same time. In the months since this track was released I've listened to it countless times, and I've still no idea what it's actually about, but every listen paints a picture that stays with me long after the song's finished.

When it comes to the b-side, in contrast, there's no mistaking what it's about. Younger's oblique, occasionally witty lyrical approach manages to breathe fresh life into the classic breakup song trope, and the end result is a track that's almost as bewitching as the a-side. The single came out on Everybody's Stalking back in May, and although I came late to the party and didn't order my copy until mid summer, Your Cover Blown is easily my most-played 7" of 2012 (so far, at least).