We haven’t heard from the Toronto pop experimentalists Bernice since they released 2021’s Album Of The Week-worthy Eau de Bonjourno. It wouldn’t have been out of character for them to fade away from the spotlight for a few years, but they’re already back with a new album, Cruisin’, which will be released in April. Today, they’re sharing the album’s lead single, the muted and tender “Underneath My Toe.”

“We were really missing our friend Devon Sproule. We were missing a lot of friends back when we wrote this album,” the band’s leader Robin Dann said. “Thom and I sat down and asked ourselves what we wanted to say to her, what does any friend want to say to their pal who’s far away?” She continued:

Toe became the balm for the missing feeling, and when we shared it with her, she (as usual) distilled the feeling perfectly, saying “It feels like two important things smooshed together: how complicated it feels to be a person, and to live with other people, in a house or a city…and then how simple love can feel, like love from an animal friend, or how it feels to be connected to the Earth.

Listen below.

TRACKLIST:
01 “Entrance Music”
02 “Second Judy”
03 “Underneath My Toe”
04 “Little Miss Timme” (Feat. Panteen)
05 “Barbara, It’s Your Tree”
06 “Begin Again”
07 “Always A Lover”
08 “To Live On Carrots”
09 “I Am Brave”
10 “Dog Needs Love”
11 “Yoohoo”
12 “Are You Breathing”
13 “No Effort To Exist”
14 “7”

Cruisin’ is out 4/23 via Telephone Explosion.