Nation Of Language, of Band To Watch fame, are releasing their Sub Pop debut Dance Called Memory in September. They've already shared a peak at the project with "Inept Apollo" and "I'm Not Ready For Change." Today, they've shared the album's third single "Under The Water."
"Under The Water" is tender new-wave bliss. I could imagine it soundtracking a scene where someone encounters a love at first sight on the subway tracks, or having a beautifully quiet moment with a best friend and realizing you're soulmates. It's anxious and hopeful, building with ping-ponging synths and a dashing bass.
It's my favorite of their recent three singles, which is wild cause it barely made the album. Ian Devaney explains the urgency the band felt about the single needing to make the final cut:
We'd always had a lot of enthusiasm for the track, but the studio schedule had gotten a bit unwieldy over the holidays and an arbitrary deadline had been set to be done with LP4 prior to leaving for a January tour in Australia supporting IDLES. As such we'd turned in the final album mixes for mastering before getting on the plane and I’d resigned myself to saving ‘Under the Water' for some subsequent release down the line. But somewhere over the Pacific Ocean while trying to sequence the album clarity set in that despite our love for rigid adherence to the production calendar, we wanted it on there. So before soundchecks on the other side of the planet we hooked up all the synths we’d brought with us in the greenroom, remotely concocting the version you hear now. If it somehow sounds distinctly of the southern hemisphere, now you’ll all know why.
Listen to "Under The Water" below.
Dance Called Memory is out 9/19 via Sub Pop.
