Austel drops new single ‘The Beach in December’
The artist and producer shares her new track.
Photo: Artemis Szekir-Rigas
On Austel’s new single The Beach in December, waves roll in first, followed by soft guitar, which immediately frame the track as an indie-folk staple in the making. It’s winter-coded from the opening seconds, the kind of song which makes you nostalgic for a summer you barely lived.
Recorded with field sounds from Brighton Beach and her Thameslink journey home, the track feels like a time capsule. You can practically feel the winter breeze as she sings about “counting the waves,” about cigarettes “smoked in silence,” about leaving behind a romance that never quite took shape. It sits in that achy space between situationship and what-could-have-been, mourning a love that was soft, short, and strangely formative.
The lyricism is meticulous without ever feeling too much. Lines like “it feels like forever ago” and “boarded the train back to London” unfold like memories you’re not ready to let go of, while her reflection on mourning the “child whose love was so lost” hints at the way past wounds shadow adult relationships, storytelling in its purest form.
Sonically, this marks a shift for Austel, moving from the piano-led dreamscapes of 2024 album Dead Sea into something folkier, warmer, and even more intimate. The guitar gives her space to breathe, and the production, mixed by Grace Banks and mastered by Katie Tavini, preserves that openness.
The Beach in December feels like stepping back onto the sand long after the season’s ended, retracing your own footprints. A moment of clarity wrapped in gentle melancholy, and proof that this new chapter for Austel is going to be a beautiful one.
The Beach In December is out now.