TOPS- Share new single “Witching Hour”
New album ‘I Feel Alive’ due April 3rd
via Musique TOPS
UK and European tour in May
Montreal four-piece TOPS have shared a second single from their forthcoming album, ‘I Feel Alive,’ which will be released on April 3rd via the band’s own label, Musique TOPS.
Following the release of the album’s title track last month, new single “Witching Hour” is one of the album’s many deceptively upbeat and jubilant moments. It sees singer Jane Penney trying to negotiate the pressure to be feminine and find true feminine power.
“Witching Hour is a song about reckoning” she explains. “David wrote the chorus of the song, and when he showed it to me I gravitated towards the idea of a witching hour as a time of night for unconscious thoughts and uncomfortable visions. The pressure to be feminine has twisted my experience of my own sensuality in this nightmarish way, and I wanted to articulate that by conjuring the nefarious ways that trauma emerges in dreams. There’s a sense of reprisal in witchcraft, of retribution as a means of expression, and I wanted to explore that side of feminine power.”
The artwork for TOPS’ fourth LP sets the tone for the music enclosed. Inspired by the work of photographer Thomas Ruff, TOPS’ vocalist Jane Penney stares bare-faced down the lens – simple and un-posed, yet striking with starkness and vulnerability.
The image captures the fraught nature of being alive, which the 11 tracks on the album explore. Penny’s remarkably expressive voice is front and centre. On this record more than any other, she sings with passion and energy, without sacrificing the honesty and introspection that gives her voice its depth. The songs cover a range of experiences but at it’s heart ‘I Feel Alive’ is a record about resilience, the ways we can grow from for our pain and the strength that comes from learning to stand on your own as an individual.
‘I Feel Alive’ is TOPS’ fourth full-length, following 2017’s ‘Sugar At The Gate’ and follows singles “Echo of Dawn” and “Seven Minutes” from last year. Their trademark sound of beguiling melodies over soft-rock grooves, with touches of ’80s sophisti-pop and a contemporary experimental palette is intact, but bolder and more expansive. The songs manage to be both immediately catchy and deceptively deep, with Penny’s literary lyrics adding an extra dimension to the pure pop hooks. Satisfying yet far from predictable, this is a record to be savoured, revealing itself slowly, gaining power and poignancy with each listen.
Beneath the soaring melodies and crisp production, ‘I Feel Alive’ balances the giddiness of a new relationship with the agony of leaving old things behind. It’s an introspective record that you can dance to, music that hits in an immediate rush but sticks around, lingering like the memory of a perfect doomed love affair-both the joy and the pain, until it becomes a part of your life forever.
‘I Feel Alive’ will be released on April 3rd via Musique TOPS. Pre-order at TOPS.lnk.to/IFeelAlive
Upcoming Tour Dates:
Apr 3 – Las Vegas, NV @ Bunkhouse Saloon*
Apr 4 – Tucson, AZ @ 191 Toole*
Apr 5 – Phoenix, AZ @ Valley Bar*
Apr 6 – El Paso, TX @ Lowbrow Palace*
Apr 7 – Marfa, TX @ Lost Horse Saloon*
Apr 9 – Austin, TX @ Mohawk*
Apr 10 – San Antonio, TX @ Paper Tiger*
Apr 11 – Dallas, TX @ Club Dada*
Apr 13 – Memphis, TN @ The Hi Tone Cafe*
Apr 14 – Atlanta, GA @ Terminal West*
Apr 15 – Asheville, NC @ The Mothlight*
Apr 16 – Washington D.C. @ Union Stage*^
Apr 17 – Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s^
Apr 18 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom*^
Apr 20 – Boston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall*^
Apr 21 – Montreal, QC @ Theatre Rialto#^
Apr 22 – Toronto, ON @ Adelaide Hall#^
Apr 23 – Detroit, MI @ Deluxx Fluxx#^
Apr 24 – Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle#^
Apr 25 – Minneapolis, MN @ Turf Club#^
Apr 28 – Vancouver, BC @ Imperial Theatre#
Apr 29 – Seattle, WA @ The Crocodile#
Apr 30 – Portland, OR @ Doug Fir Lounge#
May 1 – San Francisco, CA @ The Independent#
May 2 – Los Angeles, CA @ El Rey Theatre#
May 4 – San Diego, CA @ Music Box#
May 11 – Berlin, Germany @ Berghain Kantine
May 12 – Hamburg, Germany @ Molotow
May 13 – Köln, Germany @ Bumann & Sohn
May 14 – Münster, Germany @ Gleis 22
May 15 – Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Paradiso
May 16 – Paris, France @ Le Beau festival @ La Station
May 18 – Brighton, UK @ The Hope & Ruin
May 19 – Nottingham, UK @ Bodega
May 20 – Dublin, Ireland @ Whelan’s
May 21 – Glasgow, UK @ Stereo
May 22 – Manchester, UK @ YES
May 24 – Bristol, UK @ The Louisiana
May 25 – Birmingham, UK @ Hare and Hounds
May 27 – Lille, France @ La Bulle Café
May 28 – Brussels, Belgium @ Botanique
May 29 – Groningen, Netherlands @ Vera
May 30 – Utrecht, Netherlands @ Ekko
Jun 1 – Barcelona, Spain @ Primavera Sound @ Sala Apolo
*Honey Harper as direct support
#Sorry Girls as direct support
^Better Person as support
Ticket info at tttopsss.com
‘I Feel Alive’ album track list:
1. Direct Sunlight
2. I Feel Alive
4. Ballads & Sad Movies
5. Colder & Closer
6. Witching Hour
7. Take Down
8. Drowning In Paradise
9. OK Fine Whatever
10. Looking To Remember
11. Too Much
Links:
https://twitter.com/TTTOPSSS
https://www.instagram.com/tttopsss/
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