Listen to Tiny Little Houses' first song in way too long, Richard Cory

It's been a long, long time since the name Tiny Little Houses popped into our email inbox, but god, it's great to have it back there again. Across the last five years, the Melbourne-based group have blossomed into one of the country's defining indie bands thanks to a string of consistent, A-grade releases that set the tone for a wave of Australian rock music in the years following. Everything they released shined with a charm that became distinctive of Tiny Little Houses, particularly their 2018-released debut album Idiot Proverbs, which we still think is one of the best to come out of Australia in quite a long time.

However, since the record's arrival in January 2018 - and the subsequent touring - things have been quiet. Real quiet. Across the last two years, the band have kept their heads down low as they refine their sound and work on upcoming material, the first taste of which emerging today - almost three years later - in the form of their returning track, Richard Cory. "We are very much looking forward to releasing new music, even in such a disruptive time," the band say in a statement. "With a whole bunch of songs on the way, we think they're reflective of some of the anxieties and uncertainty that has surfaced more obviously during this last year."

Richard Cory sets it off on the right foot. It's a spiralling three-minutes of potent indie-rock that's rich with this thick, heartbreakingly beautiful emotional core - something that's always been present throughout Tiny Little Houses' work, but has really been emphasised in their new music, by the sounds of their statement and its first taste in Richard Cory. Caleb Karvountzis’ vocals remain all-time; moving with a grace that really captures the single's intimacy even as the swelling instrumental underneath it battles for your attention.

However, no matter how much of a fight that instrumental makes, you're forced to listen to Karvountzis' every lyric; forced to take in every ounce of personal intimacy that thrives through his gentle vocal. "Richard Cory is a reimagining of a far better poem by Edwin Arlington Robinson," he says on the track. "The first time I read it as a teenager, I was completely stunned and knew one day I would try to work a song around its theme. While modernising some of the setting and language, I've tried my best to do the original poem justice, with its status themes still being relevant today."

The infamous poem also influenced Simon & Garfunkel's song of the same name - "I actually had no idea [until our record label pointed it out]," Caleb admits - but Tiny Little Houses' take gives it an entirely new life, bringing forth its messages analysing it through a 2020 lens, where its theme is perhaps more evident than ever.

The end result is welcomed return from Tiny Little Houses, and with plenty more on the way, it seems that the group are well and truly back. Dive into Richard Cory below:

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