It is fitting that on the day that Irish radio is taken to task for its lack of engagement with female musicians that one of the island’s favourite daughters Ailbhe Reddy releases an enticing preview of her highly anticipated debut album ‘Personal History’.

‘Time Difference’ finds Reddy pondering the difficulties of long-distance relationships and how difficult it can be as a touring musician to maintain the spark as you go about your separate lives. The track juxtaposes her sense of loneliness with the longing to explore a new city, in this case Glasgow.

In many ways the track echoes the sentiments of Phoebe Bridgers’ ‘Kyoto’ in confronting the guilt of having fun in a new city, set against the mundane prospect of packing your suitcase only to be alone in another hotel room tomorrow night, whilst also questioning whether what’s waiting for you at home is worth what you’re missing out on on the road.

“The lyrics are dealing with how it feels to make something work long distance while living on a very different schedule to my girlfriend back home.” says Ailbhe. “But it also reaches back to other times in other relationships where I couldn’t make things work because of the same issues, there was always something in the way, be it physical distance or timing.” 

The accompanying ‘Time Difference’ video sees Ailbhe team-up with videographer Ciaran O’Brien for a light-hearted exploration of the track’s lyrics with Ailbhe navigating her way through a series of jobs out-of-sync with the rest of the world.

“I wanted to represent that feeling of being on a different schedule to everyone else by showing what it would be like if I worked an office job. I spent a lot of my early twenties working in offices while playing late night gigs in Dublin so it was just having a bit of fun with that idea.”

‘Time Difference’ evokes the feeling of social displacement perfectly, and whilst evoking elements of artists such as Lizza Anne, Soccer Mommy and Lucy Dacus the track is unmistakably Ailbhe Reddy. If ‘Time Difference’ is anything to go by then ‘Personal History’ will be worth the 3-year wait.