I've been waiting nearly half a decade for this day. Knifeplay, the dreamy, dreary, deeply dramatic Philadelphia Band To Watch, released their breakthrough sophomore album Animal Drowning way back in 2022. Since then, the TJ Strohmer-led combo has toured intermittently, updated their ephemeral Christmas EP annually, and released the stunning Live In Seattle, a six-song collection featuring several unreleased epics begging for a studio treatment. Now those songs are indeed part of a new Knifeplay LP.
Knifeplay's third album is called What Is Truth? — a Pontius Pilate reference, I assume? It's dropping in January on Double Double Whammy, and it's almost 80 minutes long. Damn, Knifeplay! My interest is especially piqued by a line in the official bio about how "it’s the kind of record you would have stuffed onto a CD-R back in the days when Low were still on Kranky, when Red House Painters were still working, when Ida were making a major label pay for their masterpiece."
The album is preceded today by the 10-minute lead single "Love Song." Ben Turok made the video, and he shared this statement about it:
This couple is a real 20-year-old couple I casted for the video and drove with from LA to New York. I had planned most of what we shot but of course some things just happened and that's most of what I liked in the end. I wanted to make something epic in scope, that had all this beauty and emotion baked into its images.
Watch below.
TRACKLIST:
01 "Toil"
02 "Little Candle"
03 "Agonizing Mountain"
04 "Flowers Must Die"
05 "Joy"
06 "Close Your Eyes"
07 "Toil (Reprise)"
08 "Lord, Where Are You?"
09 "Stars"
10 "Love Song"
11 "Take The Light"
12 "Please Let The Children Be Artists"
TOUR DATES:
10/10 - Harrisburg, PA @ Capital City Music Hall (w/ Hase & Full Body 2 DJ Set)
12/11 - Philadelphia, PA @ Mini Mart (w/ Rhododendron)
What Is Truth? is out 1/22 on Double Double Whammy. Pre-order it here.
