There's something horrific happening on "Even If It's Just A Dream," the latest single from Atlanta trio Sword II -- Mari González, Certain Zuko, and Travis Arnold -- but the band makes it sound like a romantic reverie. Over a dreamy, levitating synth arpeggio and wistful acoustic guitar strums, González' airy vocals paint a grisly scene: "Surgeries and batteries/ I’d take the scalpel’s touch to nucleus/ The needles penetrate the walls around our cells." She softens the nightmare by woozily singing: "Even if it’s just a dream."
It's as if Beach House collaborated with David Cronenberg. The accompanying visual directed by Dakotah Malisoff features glitter eye shadow and leaky blood transfusions. In fact, the whole thing reminds me of the memorable moment from Cronenberg's Crimes Of The Future when Kristen Stewart proclaims: "Surgery is the new sex." In Cronenberg's dystopic world, body augmentation is a new kind of intimacy that's evolved from humanity pushing the levels of pleasure and pain to their max. The surreality, the horror, and the graphic romance of all this immediately comes to mind with "Even If It's Just A Dream."
The new single announces the band's forthcoming album Electric Hour, out Nov. 14, which seems like it will bring more of the same gripping unease. The band shared some insight around the new album:
The title was inspired by the idea that we are in the era of surveillance technology, but also we imagined ‘electric hour’ as something powerful, a time for creativity, potency and revolution - ‘the time is now’ type situation. We imagined the ‘hour’ as the time a band gets to be on stage - one hour to make your point to the audience, to make sense of the situation facing humanity. One hour to bring into the physical world the music that resonates with people facing repression, increasing alienation, and violence. Basically, one shot to make the revolution. It’s very daunting because you only get one life, one hour. But our limitation is what shows us what is important, what is worthy of our time in this life.
Watch the vide for "Even If It's Just A Dream" below.
TRACKLIST:
01 "Disconnection"
02 "Sentry"
03 "Under The Scar"
04 "Sugarcane"
05 "Gun You Hold"
06 "Passionate Nun"
07 "Halogen"
08 "Violence Of The Star"
09 "Who's Giving You Love"
10 "Even If It's Just A Dream"
Electric Hour is out 11/14 via section1. Pre-order here.
