Back in June of 2018 we were lucky enough to share ‘Fool on Fire‘, a single from the record Endless Idle by Brooklyn’s Dead Painters, released on Rue Defense. The band, originating from a group of visual artists, provide what we called “exceptional explorations of ordinary life,” drawing inspiration from portraiture, movies, autobiography and more to create their uniquely inventive snapshots of characters and events. As we continued:
How to interpret the Dead Painters sound is left entirely to the audience, with a certain ambiguity encouraged and developed […] In many ways, this is not unlike our experience of life, where we are given snatches of information, glances at faces, though never the complete picture, instead conjuring our own understandings from whatever we can glean from what’s around us.
Dead Painters are back with their third full-length album, Doused. Looking to develop the styles set out on previous records while forging ahead into new territory too, the album is indebted to a number of genres, from lean indie rock to psychedelica. However, far from satisfied with replicating old sounds or creating loving pastiche, the outfit delve into the centre of such style and reconfigure their focus and meaning. “Thinking about psychedelic rock and its deep connections to drug culture in the 1980s,” reads the press release, “the band pushed away from the more traditional associations in favor of more alternative means of expression found in bands like Talk Talk and the Cure.”
Therefore, in considering themes such as ageing and mortality, “the songs on this album place more stock in meditative ideas rather than psychoactive substances.” The result is a record with a foot in the past while looking forward too, a space carved out within the bustle of the city in which self-examination and reflection are once again possible.
Today, we’re delighted to share the first single, ‘Marigold’. Wistful and glimmering, the track concerns death and its inevitability, the persistent rhythm of the sound echoing time’s constant motion. The band describe the song as about “getting older, sleeping less, and the feeling that the clock is slowly counting down toward the end,” the burnt orange of the title evoking autumnal change and the day of the dead.
The lyrics are plagued by the vaguely vertiginous sense of time passing, months and years sliding past beneath your feet, but the vocals remain soft and kindhearted nonetheless. Because rather than homing in on the dread of death, Dead Painters reflect their focus off of its surface, facing not ahead in terrified wait of the approaching end but rather all around. For there are others on this slow march. The journey need not be alone.
Doused is out on the 6th December via Rue Defense and you can pre-order it now.