PREMIERE: Family of the Year Finds Release on “Let Her Go” for Original Tracks

Whether you’ve been following the band since 2009’s Songbook or you fell for their lilting melodies as one of the few voices on Boyhood’s ’00s-hit-parade soundtrack, Family of the Year has been cranking out dusty folk-pop ballads on the regular for nearly a decade. Since “Hero” put them on the radar worldwide back in 2014, we’ve seen them make the late-night TV rounds and heard them soundtrack every hit show from Suburgatory to Degrassi (including an original track for Girls)—so, needless to say, we’re anxious to hear what’s next for the perpetual award-winning kinfolk (note: they’re not actually a family band).

The fourpiece didn’t disappoint when they stepped into our gallery space last month to deliver a stripped-down rendition of “Let Her Go” from their forthcoming fifth album, Goodbye Sunshine, Hello Nighttime, for Original Tracks. With just two acoustic guitars and minimal percussive and synthesized flourishes, the band’s vocal harmonies carry the track to the levels achieved by their previous hit which aptly packed ten years of American prepubescence into just three minutes. Check out the performance below, along with another GSHN cut, “Hold Me Down,” a cover of Miley Cyrus’s “Karen Don’t Be Sad,” and an interview with the band.

“Let Her Go”

“Karen Don’t Be Sad”

“Hold Me Down”

Interview