With their debut EP Backyard, and last year’s full-length album From a View, Melbourne quartet Floodlights captured out attention with their fun, heartfelt and politically conscious sound. “Combining rough and ready indie rock with a decidedly Aussie country twang,” we wrote of Backyard, “Floodlights provide added depth and context with a keen sense of burning injustice and sincere sentiment.”
Now the band have returned with a new double A-side single, The More I Am / Overflowing Cup on Tiny Town Records, which they say again sets out to “explore narratives of ingrained cultural views, personal doubt, and self reflection.” But despite these thematic similarities, the new songs take a slightly different lyrical approach, dialling back the autobiographical nature of previous work in favour of sentiments more general though no less pressing.
The more upbeat of the two, ‘The More I Am’ feels like a contemporary reimagining of Flying Nun era New Zealand jangle pop. The song follows its narrator’s journey from vindictive cynicism to sincerity and empathy, its driving beat, wiry guitars and the distinctive vocals of lead Louis Parsons making for something genuinely stirring.
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Backed with plaintive harmonica, ‘Overflowing Cup’ takes a more introspective angle, building from gentle guitar into a shuffling indie rock song. “Perspectives and opinions
have obscured my view, ” begins Parsons, singing from a position of mock close-mindedness. “As I look through my window I can only see half of what I used to.” It’s a sense of irony you might expect to find on a blazing punk song, but which Floodlights handle with a cutting composure and clarity, even as the energy grows toward the finale.
The single come complete with a video by Melbourne filmmaking collective Dogmilk Films, which sees the metaphor of the album’s title manifest as a bubbling green ooze. Watch it below:
The More I Am / Overflowing Cup is out now via Tiny Town Records. Get it on 7″ record or as a download from the Floodlights Bandcamp page.
