back to
Popfrenzy Records
We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

SONGS "SONGS"

by Songs

/
  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $12.50 AUD  or more

     

  • Full Digital Discography

    Get all 4 Songs releases available on Bandcamp and save 10%.

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of SONGS "MALABAR", 'Alone When I'm With You' (single), Heavy, and SONGS "SONGS". , and , .

    Purchasable with gift card

      $25.20 AUD (10% OFF)

     

1.
Farmacy 03:44
2.
3.
Oh No 04:50
4.
Retreat 03:24
5.
Clouds 06:00
6.
7.
8.
Pain 03:04
9.
It's Dry 04:29
10.
11.
Just An Idea 11:01
12.
My Number 06:09

about

Songs are walking the hard path back to modernism with a shrug.
The Sydney based band make echo heavy drone pop that gives
modern music the cold shoulder. Squeezing into the gap between
pop, minimalism and no wave, the sound of Songs is deceptively
simple, friendly and willfully careless. They simulate the best of the
'New' music: New York during the 70's and New Zealand in the
80's.

Echoing the repetition and minimalism of John Cale and La Monte
Young, the guitar work shimmers and sprawls into long summer
drones. With the same attention to simplicity that inspired The
Clean, the rhythms are stark and mechanical. Lead singer Max
Doyle rambles, even chants, over the top, at times invoking a
laissez‐faire Tom Verlaine offset by the aching, morning after voice
of Ela Stiles. No one has made “we don’t care” sound so friendly.

Songs was recorded under the helm of Casey Rice (The Dirty
Three, The Sea and Cake, Gastr Del Sol). The album leaves you
wondering how a sound that feels so familiar: two guitars, a bass
and drums, can be so spectacularly nuanced with shades of
something new and unheard. Echoes of John Cale, The Velvet
Underground, Television, Galaxie 500, sun drenched pop, and the
most nihilist acid folk make a glorious union. But no influence is as
strong as The Clean, New Zealand's greatest exponents of the
Dunedin sound. Their ghost is felt in Songs’ dead pan humor,
simple experimentation, and crystal tone.

Songs is an unexpected collection of Sydney professionals and
degenerates. Max Doyle, a successful Sydney photographer, and
grown man, fronts the band. Guitarist Jeff Burch is an American
born New Zealander who runs a small publishing house. Steve
Uren lives on the beach and previously drummed for an infamous
post punk band with Jeff. Ela Stiles, the only girl in the band,
comes from the threshold of rural Australia.

Crepuscular and emerging, the sound comes without wrapping or
novelty. Songs make a noise that could not be made anywhere
else at any other time than now. This is a sound channeled
through millions of hours, to reassemble itself again in sweaty
downtown Sydney ‐ city of cheap heroin, 90's excess and beautiful
beaches. It couldn't fit more perfectly and they probably couldn't
care less. Listless, Songs hold their hands up, avoid eye contact,
and let the music play itself out.

“Songs is the Greatest Album I Have Heard This Year...and quite
possibly this decade. Not that music is a competition, you
understand. Ten stars. A hundred stars. A shimmering, cascading
universe‐full.” – Everett True on The Vine

credits

released October 1, 2009

Songs are Max Doyle, Ela Stiles, Jeff Burch and Steve Uren

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Songs Sydney, Australia

contact / help

Contact Songs

Streaming and
Download help

Report this album or account

If you like Songs, you may also like: