Normally, being less than a week away from the official beginning of summer, most of us would already be experiencing the wonderful things the dog days provide: wearing visors, sitting on patios, and sipping cocktails with umbrellas (“the big three,” as no one has said, ever). But instead, everywhere I look, all hints of sun-kissed fun seem to be extinguished by a miserable extended spring, populated by dour-faced defeateds holding murky mugs of coffee wallowing in their dark city center spite. I mean, I like me some good ol’ everyday realism in my reality, but do I need to feel like I have inadvertently walked mid-set into the filming of a post-WWII British “kitchen sink” drama every day?
Though his latest album will come out in the humid throes of summer, Vancouverite Kim Gray has created an album that is the perfect pop antidote to battle the pre-summer blahs going on right now. Best known for his work with Skinny Kids, Gray releases his sophomore full-length Compulsion on August 11 through Bad Diet.
Compulsion is the follow-up to his fragrant debut Perfume and sees the colorful Gray (see what I did there?) distance himself further from his former band’s more chaotic sound as he produces earworms borne of a vaguely trippy vision and a love for chiming guitar. Recorded on a venerable and trendy Tascam 388 tape machine, the album contains ten tracks of unaffected simplicity and shabbily uplifting sounds. Think Real Estate, Kurt Vile, and, as others have assuredly mentioned, Mac DeMarco, and you’ll begin to sense the sunny state of mind Gray has achieved here.
The first hazy, summer-is-a-comin’ single, album-opener — and my NEW theme song — “P.I.G.” can be heard via TMT’s EXCLUSIVE PREMIERE of the lyric video link below. While you listen and feel the gloom melt away, you can also preorder Compulsion here!
(P.S. Dates are being planned around the album release date but if you are itching to see Kim Gray live, you will have to travel to Western Canada (sunny, summery Calgary, to be specific) to catch him at this year’s on June 24.)
Compulsion tracklisting:
01. P.I.G.
02. Peroxide Blondes
03. No Moonlight
04. Kicking Rocks
05. Compulsion
06. Taking It Too Easy
07. Reflection of You
08. What’s in a Smile
09. Restless Legs
10. 90s Baby
More about: Kim Gray
