Less than three years have passed since Warpaint’s self-titled second LP, but a clutch of side projects from each of its members separate it from their new record: Jenny Lee Lindberg released a solo album as JennyLee. Emily Kokal worked with Saul Williams and Paul Bergmann ; Stella Mozgawa featured on a Kurt Vile EP and Theresa Wayman worked on a project called Boss. Now, the foursome return with Heads Up, which was led by a new song called, yes, “New Song.”
Warpaints music makes the most sense in the dark. And while Heads Up might be the quartet’s glossiest, catchiest work to date, it still seems to be guided by heavy mood lighting. Each of its 11 songs shares a romantic and lonely atmosphere, like the dance floor of a club after everyone has cleared out. The ghosts that linger throughout the album carry a similar sense of eerie vacancy. The hooks — “You sure look good” in “Dre,” or “You know what you’re doing” in “By Your Side” — are the kinds of things you overhear as you walk home on a Saturday night. And the music -– all stuttering drums and humming bass, with Emily Kokal’s vocals dreamily floating in the mix -– follows you like footsteps, revealing its power as the night blurs on. This track, taken from Warpaint’s 2016 album, Heads Up, Soulwax got their disco-fevered paws on the original and bongo-ed the shit out of it. The result is like a tropical island getaway for the ears. Into it.
The Fat Angel Sings 