Big Red Machine – “The Ghost Of Cincinnati”Big Red Machine – “The Ghost Of Cincinnati”

Yesterday, Aaron Dessner and Justin Vernon announced their sophomore album as Big Red Machine, How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last, which has a stacked guest list with appearances from Taylor Swift, Sharon Van Etten, Robin Pecknold, and many more. They introduced the project with “Latter Days,” which featured Bonny Light Horseman’s Anaïs Mitchell, and they’re already back with another song from the album.

“The Ghost Of Cincinnati” is a Dessner-only affair. As he explained in an Instagram post, the song was inspired by a screenplay called Dandelion written by filmmaker Nicole Riegel, a project that Aaron is involved with alongside his brother Bryce.

“It’s about someone who feels like a ghost, stalking the streets of their hometown, interrogating the past and contemplating their fate – something I can deeply relate to,” Dessner wrote. “I imagine this could be a little bit about myself, or friends I’ve lost or someone who has overextended and overspent themselves to a point where they’ve lost everything, empty and hollow like a ghost.”

Listen below.