Algiers share new song ‘I Can’t Stand It!’ with Future Islands’ Samuel T. Herring
British-American genre blenders Algiers are pulling out the big guns for their upcoming fourth studio album, Shook.
We’ve already heard what the band has done with Rage Against the Machine frontman Zack de la Rocha on the song ‘Irreversible Damage’, and now the group has recruited two more big names to flesh out their new track ‘I Can’t Stand It!’.
In one corner is Future Islands frontman Samuel T. Herring; in the other is Boy Harsher singer Jae Matthews. Both vocalists add to the chopped-up noises that float in the background of ‘I Can’t Stand It!’, backing up a frantic lead performance from frontman Franklin James Fisher. As the track gets darker, new samples and programmed drums make the chaotic arrangement even wilder.
“It’s a very personal song about a devastating loss of someone I believed to be the love of my life which nearly ended in my suicide,” Fisher shared in a statement. “I think the song’s narrative arc reflects the sense of dread and the path that led me to that moment. She put on ‘What You Don’t Want Me To Be’ the first time I heard it and I knew immediately that I was going to sample it—I just couldn’t have known the result would be a song about our own end. But every time I sing that song now it feels like I heal a little bit more.”
“I wanted to give Algiers not so much a narrative, but a recollection of a feeling,” Matthews added. “That abstract evocation that comes when you think about someone who broke y[ou]r heart and how that pain still tethers you.”
The guest stars on Shook make up quite a stacked lineup. Big Rube, billy woods, previous collaborator LaToya Kent, Backxwash, Nadah El Shazly, DeForrest Brown Jr, Patrick Shiroishi, Lee Bains III, and Mark Cisneros are all set to show up in the margins of Shook. It’s an exciting list, and it’ll be fascinating to see how those unique voices will blend within the industrial soul of Algiers.
Check out the video for ‘I Can’t Stand It!’ down below. Shook is set for a February 24th release.
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