On “Erase”, DLG. and Koastle lean into the paradox at the heart of heartbreak: how something so devastating can sound so radiant. Recorded at Spotify Studios in Los Angeles and inspired by the hazy melancholy of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, the single wrestles with memory as both a burden and a balm.
DLG., whose Mac Miller–tinged delivery has quietly amassed him more than 50 million streams, brings a voice that is equal parts bruised and buoyant. His performance here is textured, a study in restraint; you hear the cracks of someone recalling a four-year relationship that dissolved, but also the resolve of someone trying to move past it. Koastle—the Orange County duo known for their glimmering, ODESZA-indebted soundscapes—match him step for step. Their production, crafted in a Tahoe cabin as snow melted outside, is expansive yet tactile: synths shimmer like half-forgotten Polaroids, percussion pulses with the ache of a restless mind.
What makes “Erase” striking isn’t just its thematic resonance but its sonic elasticity. It’s a track that could soundtrack a festival sunset or a solitary late-night drive, slipping between electronic grandeur and indie intimacy without strain. Koastle’s week-to-week Koastcards project has already shown their appetite for experimentation, but here their chemistry with DLG. feels lived-in, the product of long-time collaborators who know when to leave space and when to flood it.
As the final single before DLG.’s debut album (out October 10), “Erase” feels like a closing chapter and a quiet thesis statement. It doesn’t just document heartbreak—it lingers in the tension between forgetting and remembering, loss and growth. The song’s emotional core lies in that impossible wish: too o rewrite memory while still cherishing what was. In that way, “Erase” becomes more than a breakup song; it’s a meditation on the way we hold onto the fragments that shape us, even when we’d rather let them fade.
