When someone declares themselves a car crash, as opposed to when someone insists they’re a river, my mind does not initially jump to a happy place. These two bizarre comparisons sit side by side (“I’m a car crash/ I’m a river”) on the newest track from London-based duo CYMBALS. Jack Cleverly and Dan Simons make the coexistence sound like a jubilant manifestation. From Light In Your Mind, their follow-up to 2014’s The Age Of Fracture, “Car Crash” is a synth-pop pipe dream of contradictions based on the realization that both the complicated and simple must inhabit the same space. Cleverly shared these insights:

This song is about impossible love, like a slow-motion car crash, or a river that is always moving. It was written quietly on acoustic guitar, in a confessional way. Dan then reworked it, putting that emotional vulnerability inside this bigger electronic sound, exposing it, turning negative energy positive.

Listen below.

Tracklist:

01 “Decay”
02 “Car Crash”
03 “Talk To Me”
04 “I Thought I Knew You”
05 “My Body (Winter Mix)”
06 “Where Nothing Can Be Defined”
07 “Splitting”
08 “Euphoric Recall”
09 “ASMR”
10 “Fully Automated Luxury”
11 “Lifetime Achievement Award”

Light In Your Mind out 8/25 via Tough Love Records. Pre-order it here. CYMBALS have a show at Thousand Island in London on 8/31.

CREDIT: Emily Graham