“Of course, home is about more than geography, and so ‘New Ro’ is not only an ode to a specific location, but a specific relationship too.” So we wrote of the most recent single from GROG, the forthcoming album from New York‘s Frog on Audio Antihero, when premiering it last week. “Frog’s newly fraternal status is a key facet of the record,” as we continued, “a seamless blend of obscure references, cryptic in-jokes and hard truths […] you wonder whether the songs could have been quite as daring, dark and strange without that inherent trust. Who else but siblings could hold fatalism and fun in the same breath?”
Because fatalistic and fun this new album certainly is. “Every song is a step deeper into the abyss,” as lead Danny Bateman explains. “At some point I’ve lost all ability to see the day light and the darkness envelops me.” But rather than succumbing to this gloom, Bateman and brother Steve instead “fashion these shadows into an endless array of madcap, atmospheric and often emotionally charged forms,” as we put it. “There are really exciting places we were able to get to on this record, places that I didn’t know existed before I found them,” Bateman says. “It feels both gothic and cartoonish to me, big gargoyles, dark skies, storms, but the statues are of Aaahh!!! Real Monsters.”
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Today, as part of a blogosphere collaboration/Frog-takes-over-the-internet kind of deal, we are joining our comrades at HI54LOFI, For The Rabbits, Start-Track, God Is In The TV, Acute Pop and Adobe & Teardrops in sharing further tracks from the album ahead of its release this Friday. Our offering, ‘So Twisted Fate’, delves further into the record’s ambiguous spirit, both leaning into and fighting against the sense destiny might be pulling you downwards with a poignant blend of melancholy and irreverent humour. “Gonna take the bassline out to lunch / Gonna make a bowl of captain crunch,” as Bateman sings in the opening lines, “Sad girl sat down on the couch / Calm down no one will find out / Got a hair stuck in her mouth”
So twisted fate
Like a plunge in the neckline or change in the set time
So twisted fate
Don’t act like you never lost something that you wanted bad enough to call your bluff or mine
Photo by Andrew Piccone