Nap Eyes‘ 2014 LP Whine of the Mystics was a brainy sort of daydream. Build on the genteel lilt of windswept electric guitars, swooning dramatic tension, and songwriter Nigel Chapman’s bookish lyricism, it felt sorta like falling asleep with a Velvets record playing in the distance and your nose in some weighty tome. It was deftly written indie pop told through sleepy distance, and today the Nova Scotia natives are returning with “Mixer,” the first single from their sophomore LP Thought Rock Fish Scale, which brings with it the promise of more rambling romanticism.
Over a bassline that’d otherwise feel at home on a Chills record, Chapman details a party and wondering “if [he’s] really here,” a distressing, nihilist musing that makes his otherwise warm pop song feel wonderfully and beautifully frigid — frozen in time and place, despite its humid surroundings. Thought Rock Fish Scale is out February 5 on Paradise of Bachelors and it’s available for pre-order now.
Listen to “Mixer” here.
