Cola announce new album with jam-packed single ‘Hedgesitting’
Montreal-based post-punk trio Cola have announced their “sort of self-titled” album, Cost of Living Adjustment, with their first single, ‘Hedgesitting’.
The track is cushioned by a pulsating, skippy drumbeat, featuring both live drums and a sample drum loop. With a bang, we hear it: Cola’s new taste for maximalism.
Though Tim Darcy, Ben Stidworthy, and Evan Cartwright define themselves as a band of “tasteful minimalism,” this head-first intensity is artfully manipulated and builds into a cathartic, restorative collaboration. The song is jam-packed with ideas. For that, it’s the perfect step forward.
The track differs from their former work in the surprising melodic sustenance of the vocal line. While Darcy is known for his quirky indie-rock sprechgesang, here he has turned to a more vulnerable, if litltingly gruff, singing style. There’s an air of angry Mount Kimbie about it all.
The new vocal style adds to the air of nostalgia, as Darcy looks back on the former simplicity of life whittled away in the neutral zone: “When you were young, didn’t have a phone, six hand of one, half dozen at most.”
Though the song looks back, no blur or distortion creates an effect of memory. Cola, instead, relies on their intense instrumentation to expertly expand and navigate a lengthy over-the-shoulder glance; in their own words, ‘Hedgesitting’ and, indeed, the album at large, “is ruthlessly aware of all of its parts, and treats them as equally important.”
The press release makes another important admission, proposing that the song is “like a deconstructed, chopped and screwed b-side from the Cure’s Disintegration. It’s also a little indebted to Sarah Records. “When you were young,” Darcy sings at the song’s start, “you came to make it.”
Far Out gave Cola’s 2024 record, The Gloss, a glowing four-star review, writing, “A brilliantly considered and concise opus, Cola continue to tread their own path despite the electronic zeitgeist and produce art of real value. Furthermore, as the band are so early into their story, you get the sense that The Gloss is really only the beginning of their sonic exploration.”
Cost of Living Adjustment will be released on Fire Talk on May 8th. See the full tracklisting below.
Cola — Cost of Living Adjustment tracklisting:
- ‘Forced Position’
- ‘Hedgesitting’
- ‘Fainting Spells’
- ‘Haveluck Country’
- ‘Satre-torial’
- ‘Polished Knives’
- ‘Much Of A Muchness’
- ‘Third Double’
- ‘Conflagration Model’
- ‘Favoured Over The Ride’
- ‘Skywriter’s Ride’
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