"Pull The Rug" sits in the middle of Wither , HAFFWAY's debut album, and does what the title promises: the stability the record has been building gets pulled out from underneath, and the writing responds accordingly. Sam Westhoff has said the album deals with love, loss, and mental health, and this track is the one where all three of those threads pull tightest. Westhoff spent years as a producer before stepping forward as the artist, and that production background is audible: the arrangements on Wither are deliberate and unhurried, and they stay out of the way when the writing needs to breathe. "Pull The Rug" benefits from that restraint. The emotional core of the song does the work. Folk songwriting at its best operates from specificity: the particular thing, the exact feeling, the image that could only have come from this person. "Pull The Rug" is that kind of song. It earned its listeners.
HAFFWAY