When you hear a song such as "Only Skin," you stop dead in your tracks. You catch yourself from doing whatever it is that you're doing at the time and you get extremely intent. You feel your skin resting on your muscles and bones like a blanket. You feel the tiny hairs growing up through the holes in that faulty blanket. You can tell that you stopped drinking whatever it was that you were drinking and you're even trying not to swallow what you already put in your mouth. Your breathing becomes shallow and you find that you've slipped off your axis just a little bit, spun off into a vacuum, where nothing else holds any importance.
It's something that happens frequently with New York City band The Spring Standards, a trio that takes us out into the pasture and lets us roam to our heart's content. "Only Skin" is a majestic take on both the fading of memory and almost how one needs not be present to have a presence, despite that faded memory. Heather Robb, who shares lead vocal duties with James Cleare and James Smith, sings, "I'm leaving now/I cannot stay/I haven't got the time/Don't use the stars to find me/Don't expect them to align/If you see me when you're dreaming/Please don't take it as a sign/Remember me with yellow hair and freckles on my nose/Remember me in purple shoes and turquoise pantyhose/Remember my two ankles, my fingers and my toes," and it's not clear why she wishes for such vividness in her absence. It creates a beautiful juxtaposition in regards to what a body means by leaving and what its actual intentions are. Hell, we're not sure if we're here right now either and that must mean for something.