The Goalie’s Anxiety At The Penalty Kick – “April 25”
We haven’t heard from Philly sextet The Goalie’s Anxiety At The Penalty Kick since their 2020 debut album Ways Of Hearing, but they’re back today with news of the next one. It is, of course, titled The Iliad And The Odyssey And The Goalie’s Anxiety At The Penalty Kick.
While Goalie’s prior music erred on the side of emo and slowcore, the new album’s lead single is more upbeat. “April 25” (which, coincidentally, is also the new album’s release date) reminds me of the poppy, trippy side of Modest Mouse and, thanks to the lightweight twee vocals and orchestral accompaniment, some of the more precious blog-rock acts of the mid-aughts. To me, those comparisons count as an endorsement.
At The Alternative, where the song premiered today, singer-guitarist Ben Curtwright shared this statement on the song:
This song is based thematically on Homer’s Odyssey, which is why the album is called what it is, and some other books I was reading at the time. It’s a song about spending my fiancée’s birthday with her, getting food and going to the park. I came up with the guitar line while trying to tab out “Pioneering New Emotions” by Joan of Arc, which it turned out is in a really weird tuning, so it doesn’t sound that much like this song, though I did figure out how to play it eventually. It’s the drums that give this song its feel, really. I remember Alyssa saying, the first time we practiced this song as a group, that they wanted to write a drum part that sounded ‘intentionally bad.’ I think it was something like that. They said they wanted a part that started out halting and stuttering but then grew in confidence and complexity as the song went on. Like someone learning how to play the drums, almost. That description really stuck with me. That’s what the song is to me. The fact that April 25, in addition to being the title of the lead single, ended up being the release date for the record — I promise, it was just a happy coincidence.
Listen below.
The Iliad And The Odyssey And The Goalie’s Anxiety At The Penalty Kick is out 4/25 on Count Your Lucky Stars.
