In recent months, we’ve covered a number of singles from Boston‘s Tory Silver in anticipation of the release of their new album In Through the Front with Lasers. Imminent on Michi Tapes, the record sees Silver joined by Christian Anderson (bass), Kyle Murphy (percussion) and Dan Kramer (guitar), as well as rotating members Ross Weidman, Eli Weidman, Marcel Damiano, and Ray Cohen. Together they create a deceptively pop-inflected alt rock sound through which the ubiquity of pain within the modern world might be confronted, as well as our ways of coping with problems that cannot be resolved.
The first single was ‘Microwave‘, a song which finds a narrator preparing themselves in the early morning ahead of a soul crushing day working in a grocery store under whatever stage of capitalism we’re calling the present. “There’s a healthy dose of existential dread sure,” we wrote, “but there’s also enough garage rock crunch for it to feel rousing too. An anthem for the masses forced to drag themselves out of bed every morning to keep on keeping on.” Then came ‘Your God‘ which set “an exploration of friendship (or rather, the lack thereof) and religious bigotry to an upbeat, almost carefree sound,” as we put it, highlighting the interplay of lightness and weight across the album. “How you interpret this style is up to you, and both have thematic resonance: A Trojan horse where difficult subjects are broached under the guise of having fun? Or an attempt to sand some of the sharp edges from these difficult subjects so it is possible to talk about them at all?”
Now Tory Silver has now returned with brand new single ‘Boy Disco’ to pave the way for the album’s release later this week. “I’ve been thinking about death / It’s complicated and unfair,” go the opening lines. “But it’s natural / and we have to learn to live with it.” The sound is marked by a simmering energy and palpable weight, the creeping momentum like a building force that eventually has to vent. And vent the track does, intermittently breaking into squally crescendos which carry their own cathartic power, and ultimately embody the spirit of an album which faces up to the most dispiriting of life’s features and refuses to be cowed.
“This song is a stream of consciousness at heart,” they explain. “The album is about moving forward in life despite the obstacles thrown our way, and this song is where I just wrote down what I was feeling. By the end, it shifts into something more tender – a reminder of how important it is to have the right people in your life, and a hope that everyone has that. That, and it’s a freaking rock song.” Watch the video directed by Sandy Loaf below:
In Through the Front with Lasers will be released on the 29th May via Michi Tapes and you can pre-order it now.
