New Song

I have a confused relationship with the music of Warpaint.  Art its best their music has an unfocused quality with a submerged bass sound, heavily rhythmic married to unusual vocal harmonies. I love this dreamlike style, but it's one which, for me at least, they haven't quite managed to fully realise on album.

I was originally drawn to them by the song 'Undertow' from their debut album 'The Fool' which encapsulates that underplayed woozy style.

The follow-up album simply titled 'Warpaint' further emphasised that dream-like quality to their writing and playing. In spite of this the second album didn't quite deliver what it promised for me, though I do find the superimposed images of the cover especially good :-)

'Warpaint' also resulted in the release of a video coupling two of its tracks, namely 'Disco//Very' and 'Keep It Healthy', which includes some rather hypnotic dancing by Jenny Lee Lindberg!

So for me there is a huge weight of expectation on their upcoming third album, 'Heads Up'.  Ahead of the album release on Rough Trade they have released a single called 'New Song'.

'New Song' has a more upfront feel to it, and while the drum/bass patterns and vocal harmonies are characteristic of Warpaint, it does have a much 'poppier' feel. The first fifty seconds or so before the chorus are especially intoxicating and I do like the song as a whole - I've certainly listened to it between 10 and 20 times (who's counting!) - but inherent in this song is a hint of the possibility that they may have watered down their style to achieve a wider audience. That would be a shame though perhaps within the context of the whole album this track will make more sense, maybe as lead single.

In the meantime I'll just enjoy it - especially those magical first 50 seconds ;-)