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TOPS Shine From the Inside on ‘Hollow Sounds of the Morning Chimes’

The crackly AM radio refractions of Montreal’s TOPS has been one of indie pop’s brightest spots over the past few years. That’s brightest both in terms of quality and in the sense of a sort of twitchy bioluminescence that occurs when the crew settle into their anxious evocations of the syrupy, ’70s airwave-ruling soft rock.

But both 2012’s Tender Opposites and last year’s Picture You Staring were able to take those pop fixations and render them kaleidoscopic, cosmic even. Take the kosmische implications of new single “Hollow Sounds of the Morning Chimes” (streaming here for the first time). For every lilting guitar lick that sounds vaguely like Santana, there’s another that evokes Hosianna Mantra‘s timeless grandeur. It’s infectious intimacy and clock-stopping opulence at the same time, rendered both more familiar and more formal by the practiced enunciation and knowing elisions sputtered out and glided over by singer Jane Penny. There’s a glow at the heart, a uniform shimmer and sheen when other out-of-time acts are conjuring sparks.

Listen here and check out the band’s slate of upcoming tour dates below.

TOPS tour dates:

October 26 – Minneapolis, MN @ 7th Street Entry
October 27 – Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall
October 29 – Detroit, MI @ Marble Bar
October 30 – Toronto, ON @ The Horseshoe Tavern
October 31 – Montreal, QC @ Theatre Fairmount
November 1 – Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
November 2 – Washington, DC @ U Street Music Hall
November 5 – Dallas, TX @ Dada
November 6 – Austin, TX @ Fun Fun Fun Fest
November 9 – Phoenix, AZ @ Valley Bar
November 10 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Roxy
November 11 – San Diego, CA @ The Hideout
November 12 – San Francisco, CA @ The Independent
November 13 – Portland, OR @ Doug Fir
November 14 – Seattle, WA @ Barboza
November 21st – Vancouver, BC @ The Biltmore