By Paddy Kinsella

I think we’re going to regret the loss of handheld video recorders. The time appearing in the top left, the shaky hands that recorded it, the low quality – these were the reasons why we treasured them, clutched them so close to our hearts. Recording from your phone is now so commonplace that those videos of kids building sandcastles, dogs sprinting giddily around them, now just go to die in a never-ending archive. It’s odd how music colours your imagination, draws scenes in your mind, but when listening to Maggie Gently’s new single that wistfulness, that longing for something that’s no more lays heavy in the air. It’s in the warm, fuzzy guitars, it’s in the way the song coasts along a flat road, the lay of the land changing just slightly in the chorus, it’s in the ease of Gently’s vocal that speaks with the reassurance of a friend who’s found you in a panic.

Joining LA-based artist development hub, Common Ground Collective, and working with PR company, No Earbuds, it’s fair to say that Gently’s music is in a better position to reach more ears than with her debut EP from earlier this year. It would’ve been understandable for Gently to want to arrive with a bang, but this single is admirable for its restraint. Where My Time Went is reminiscent of when teachers would put transparent plastic films under the overhead projector, switching from one to another. Gently dangles image after image in your mind’s eye and you watch, enchanted.