The last release from New Jersey indie rock band Constant Companion came way back in 2016. A 4-song EP, Curious Design introduced the band’s scrappy, jangly brand of punk which explored introspective and existential themes, making a list of some our favourite releases that year in the process. Following that, Constant Companion joined the likes of Laura Stevenson and Radiator Hospital on a Don’t Stop Now covers compilation, but have otherwise been quiet.
But that all changes with the release of a brand new single, ‘Call Me Caligula’. Though smoothing out some of the edges of the previous EP, the track retains the the Constant Companion spirit, a confident sense of motion supporting the inventive lyricism. And it is here where the band really stand out. Their idiosyncratic mix of references and introspection performs the tricky feat of sounding at once sincere and deadpan. How else to write a love song based around a vain tyrant?
But the concept is more than an exercise in mismatched possibility. Rather a study of imperfections, and how love has a habit of superseding them, or indeed ironing them out. “I hang on every word / You breathe in my ear,” goes one verse. “The most mellifluous / Sheer propaganda.” The sense of giving in to something. Feelings stronger than sense.
I am a simple man
I don’t have many wants
If love’s a murderer
Call me Caligula
Cover art by Erin Kuhn