The quiet hours of isolation often force a reckoning. For Lane Hartley, retreating to his father’s house in Asheville during the 2020 lockdown sparked a desire to translate the untouchable feelings of early adulthood into sound.

What began as quiet piano experiments captured on a laptop soon bloomed into ‘Naming Horses,’ his 2024 self-released debut. Now, Oakland, CA imprint Royal Oakie Records is giving the album a proper spotlight with an expanded edition due April 24, and we are premiering its raw bonus cut, ‘Looks Like Love.’

Produced alongside Adam Gunther, the track dives into the severe realities of a dysfunctional dynamic. Hartley frames his songwriting here as a direct confrontation with reality rather than a romanticized memory. As he explains:

“This song was an attempt at trying to write about my experiences in a more specific way. I wanted to know what it would feel like to move away from putting words to the visions in my head about what happened, and just writing about what was happening to me. This song is about giving your body away to somebody who you cannot access. They see you as this person embodying everything they want to be, and so they take everything they can from you.”

<a href="https://lanehartley.bandcamp.com/album/naming-horses-expanded">Naming Horses (Expanded) by Lane Hartley</a>

That vulnerability anchors the whole thirteen-track collection. Across ‘Naming Horses,’ Hartley unpacks the collateral damage of his history with drugs and the sting of falling in and out of queer love. The songs grapple with the futile human desire to tame a brief moment in time to feel a sense of ownership over life. Yet the record refuses to wallow. Hartley approaches his past with a deliberate softness, recognizing that everything is fleeting.

Recording the project in Los Angeles pushed him to shed his insecurities and embrace the unpredictable nature of collaboration, joined by players like Lukas Frank and Gregory Uhlmann. The expanded release arrives as a complete artistic statement proving that facing our internal entirety yields a unique kind of salvation. As Hartley notes, you cannot escape yourself, and there is a light in accepting that.