Photo by Will Matsuda.
Flasher — the D.C.-founded trio turned bi-coastal duo of drummer Emma Baker and guitarist Taylor Mulitz (the former bassist of Priests) — have announced a follow-up to their celebrated 2018 debut LP, Constant Image. Love Is Yours is due out June 17 on Domino. Along with the news, the band shared the forthcoming album's lead single, "Sideways."
The new song blends a Tears For Fears-worthy tension and release with a breezier core aesthetic, off-setting the anxiety of a driving drum/bass line from Baker and friend-of-the-band Owen Wuerker, respectively, with Mulitz's jangling chords and nonchalant, countertenor vocal delivery. Baker sings background harmonies, further distancing the duo from the pedal-to-the-floor urgency of their first record, pushing them toward a brighter, more relaxed aesthetic.
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Ironically, "Sideways" gets a Camille Smura-directed visual treatment in which Baker and Mulitz don crash-test-dummy jumpsuits and skate helmets to compete in a dusty drag race along a dirt road through a lonely desert somewhere in the American west. “Lyrically this song uses metaphors about driving as a means of escape/reflection,” Mulitz writes. “I’ve found that a lot of self-reflection and big realizations come to surface during the course of a long drive where I'm forced to sit with my own thoughts (which is where the idea for the racing video came from).”
Watch below.
