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TOPS

TOPS

Bury The Key

    TOPS — musicians David Carriere, Jane Penny,Marta Cikojevic, and Riley Fleck — write timeless music that reliably threads immediacy and depth. 'Bury the Key', their first full-length since 2020 and with new label home Ghostly International, is a captivating reintroduction for the Montréal band:ever refined, undoubtedly masters of their melodic craft yet unafraid of evolving and testing themselves against different, at times darker tones.The album faces feelings once locked away,engaging the give-and-take between happiness,hedonism, and self-destruction. While often inhabited by fictional figures, their glowing,grooving, self-produced songs draw from personal observations: intimacy (both inside and outside theband), toxic behavior, drug use, and apocalyptic dread. When recording started, they noticed a shift and leaned in, jokingly dubbed "evil TOPS," says Penny. "We're always kind of seen as a soft band orlike naive or friendly in a Canadian way, but we made it a challenge to really channel the world around us." Through the lens of a looming epoch and the clarity that comes with age, TOPS dip into amore sinister disco realm with 'Bury the Key', giving their soft-focus sophisti-pop a sharpened edge.

    TRACK LISTING

    1. Stars Come After You
    2. Wheels At Night
    3. ICU2
    4. Outstanding In The Rain
    5. Annihilation
    6. Falling On My Sword
    7. Call You Back
    8. Chlorine
    9. Mean Streak
    10. Your Ride
    11. Standing At The Edge Of Fire
    12. Paper House

    Tops

    Tender Opposites - 10th Anniversary

      Originally released in 2012,Tender Opposites is TOPS’ debut album, now celebrating it’s 10year anniversary with a special edition LP. A lush array of timelessly crafted songs, Tender Opposites gathers its strength through delicate intimacy. These are moving songs that succeed earnestly, disregarding trends and myth-making, focusing instead on pure pop craftsmanship.

      TOPS' tendency to opt towards making straight-forward, stripped down and honest recordings lets their pop songwriting shine out in the open. With a heart firmly attached to their sleeves, their songcraft delves into the emotional intricacy of personal relationships, asking questions about power and desire. Riley Fleck’s measured drumming and David Carriere’s trademark guitar licks work in tandem and in service of Jane Penny’s unmistakable, wistful voice.

      TRACK LISTING

      1. Evening
      2. Diamond Look
      3. She's So Bad
      4. VII Babies
      5. Double Vision
      6. Go Away
      7. Turn Your Love Around
      8. Rings Of Saturn
      9. TOPS Theme

      TOPS

      I Feel Alive

        The artwork for TOPS’ fourth LP sets the tone for the music enclosed. Inspired by the work of photographer Thomas Ruff, TOPS’ vocalist Jane Penney stares bare-faced down the lens – simple and un-posed, yet striking with starkness and vulnerability. The image captures the fraught nature of being alive, which the 11 tracks on the album explore. Penny's remarkably expressive voice is front and center. On this record more than any other, she sings with passion and energy, without sacrificing the honesty and introspection that gives her voice its depth. The songs cover a range of experiences but at it's heart ‘I Feel Alive’ is a record about resilience, the ways we can grow from for our pain and the strength that comes from learning to stand on your own as an individual. ‘I Feel Alive’ is TOPS’ fourth full-length, following 2017's ‘Sugar At The Gate’ and follows singles "Echo of Dawn" and "Seven Minutes" from last year. Their trademark sound of beguiling melodies over soft-rock grooves, with touches of '80s sophisti-pop and a contemporary experimental palette is intact, but bolder and more expansive. The songs manage to be both immediately catchy and deceptively deep, with Penny's literary lyrics adding an extra dimension to the pure pop hooks. Satisfying yet far from predictable, this is a record to be savored, revealing itself slowly, gaining power and poignancy with each listen. 

        TRACK LISTING

        1. Direct Sunlight
        2. I Feel Alive
        3. Pirouette
        4. Ballads & Sad Movies
        5. Colder & Closer
        6. Witching Hour
        7. Take Down
        8. Drowning In Paradise
        9. OK Fine Whatever
        10. Looking To Remember
        11. Too Much

        The Blue Nile

        A Walk Across The Roof Tops - 2019 Reissue

          Plagued by perceived inaccessibilty and that unfortunate condition of being too pop for the underground, but way too weird for the pop charts, The Blue Nile have never taken up position as Britain's greatest band - and this despite releasing the best single of all time, which you'll find here on their wonderful debut LP. Released by Linn Records (of synth drum fame) and thus recorded with a clarity and quality still unrivalled in music, "A Walk Across The Rooftops" strolls between art rock, synth pop and the avant garde, weaving an appreciation for Reich-style minimalism, downtown experiments and stadium sized melodies into seven masterful tracks. Along with the avant-pop of the titular opener, the A-side features the aforementioned "Tinseltown In The Rain" (AKA greatest single of all time) a soaring, sumptuous bit of 80s wave-pop and the downbeat delicacy of "From Rags To Riches". On the B-side, the emotional pop of "Stay" leads into the eerie "Easter Parade" before drifting fourth world jam and Balearic favourite "Heatwave" offers a "Tin-Drum" style late album masterpiece. The minimal wave "Automobile Noise" closes the set in weird and wistful fashion, and then it's time to play the whole thing through again...

          TRACK LISTING

          A Walk Across The Rooftops
          Tinseltown In The Rain
          From Rags To Riches
          Stay
          Easter Parade
          Heatwave
          Automobile Noise


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