Though Bad Moves guitarist David Combs attracted some awesome collaborators for his Dim Wizard project this year, it’s been years since we’ve heard any new music from Bad Moves proper. The DC band finally returned this week with their first new music since 2020 sophomore LP Untenable.

“New Year’s Reprieve,” billed as a pessimistic holiday anthem, is also our first taste of a new Bad Moves album coming next year. It’s one of the most instantly charming indie-pop songs I’ve heard in a long time. Here’s what Bad Moves wrote about it on Bandcamp:

There are too few pessimistic holiday songs generally, and even fewer pessimistic New Year’s Eve songs specifically. “New Year’s Reprieve” is Bad Moves’ contribution towards filling that shortage. It’s a song about following your lowest lows with your highest highs and about the inevitable comedowns the mornings after. It’s about asking the question, “Over a lifetime, will you see more highs than lows?” and knowing either answer is disingenuous. Still, in a time of year marked by compulsory optimism, the lows can hit harder than ever — and that’s something worth singing about. We hope this song will sit well next to “Fairytale of New York” (rest in power Shane and Kirsty) on a depressing holiday mixtape for someone out there.

Listen below.

“New Year’s Reprieve” is out now on Don Giovanni. Bad Moves will play a release show for the single 12/30 at Comet Ping Pong in DC.