“Now you know, baby, where I come from.”

This lyric, from opener “Crowberry Hill,” sums up the spirit of let go, give in, fall down, the second full-length record from Iqaluit band The Trade-Offs. Due out on November 4 2022 via Iqaluit label Aakuluk Music, let go, give in, fall down—in both its title and in the content of its nine tracks—is about how to bend, but not break; it’s about how to survive and find hope in the North amid loneliness, isolation, and deaths of close relations.

“It’s just the feeling of the album,” says lead singer and guitarist Josh Qaumariaq. “From losing people to being alone, you just gotta let go, give in, and fall down.”

There’s solace and joy to be found here, too. Lead single “Qanuirunniilaarmijuk” is a patient, smoky alt-country sway that switches between English and Inuktitut lyrics, while Michael Eckert’s slide guitar whines and croons in the background. “The title means, ‘things will be okay again,’” says Qaumariaq. “Things get tough, and you have to remember to say, ‘Okay, this is crazy right now, but it’ll calm down.’ I thought it was important to put it out right away, especially for Inuit.”

The blues rock stomp of second single “Crowberry Hill” is a love letter to Qaumariaq’s home, and the rituals, both simple and critical, that he and his kin have built there. “Hunting down young ring seals/Glassy lakes and long big fields/Now you know, baby, where I come from!” he calls on the chorus. Across the record, Qaumariaq howls and roars like the Arctic wind, then broods and glows like late-night embers in the hearth, while the band swaggers between rootsy, earnest alt-country, -rock, -blues, and -soul.

The Trade-Offs—Iqaluit-based members Qaumariaq and Jeffrey Maurice (bass, backing vocals), along with Toronto collaborators Eckert (pedal steel) and Galen Pelley (drums)—recorded Let Go Give In Fall Down over six days at Toronto’s Orange Lounge Studio with producer JP Maurice, Jeffrey’s cousin. Jace Lasek mixed the record and Philip Gosselin mastered.

Qaumariaq says it’s the record he and Maurice have always wanted to create, finally pinning down the sound they’d been chasing for 10+ years as a band. “We finally feel so good because we sound like ourselves,” says Qaumariaq. “This album means a lot to me, and I finally feel like I have something that feels like me.”