Portland, Ore. singer-songwriter Chris Pureka’s first album since 2010 is called Back in the Ring. It’s an appropriate title for one’s first studio LP in six years, and that earnest, dire sentiment is woven deeply into the fabric of her new track “Betting on the Races.”
“Early in writing this record, it was clear that there were going to be a lot of dark, brooding songs on it,” Pureka tells Billboard. “As I was finishing up, I wanted to come up with something lighter that would help balance out that heaviness. ‘Betting on the Races’ is what came out.”
Check it out below, premiering exclusively via Billboard:
“It’s like betting on the races/fingers crossed for years,” goes the opening couplet, setting the stage for Pureka’s jangly electric guitar strums and — eventually — a brilliant, vindicating chorus. “It is one of the first songs that I have specifically written on electric guitar and it is one of the most poppy songs that I’ve ever penned,” she says. “Even though it’s not a ‘happy’ song, I think it has a playfulness and a lightness that tames some of the melancholy. Also, tambourine. Who doesn’t love a tambourine?”
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Pureka, a full-time artist since 2006, has been self-releasing her own music since 2004. Back In the Ring arrives via her imprint, Sad Rabbit Records, on April 1. It’s available for pre-order here.
That same day, Eureka kicks off a North American tour in Phoenix, Ariz. Find her upcoming dates here.