Popstrangers – ‘Country Kills’
After releasing 2013’s gazing and woozy ‘Antipodes’, Kiwi trio Popstrangers are back with a riffier and altogether more distorted attempt with ‘Country Kills’. Its disco beat and dreamy vocals make it perfect for a Friday listen.
With enough fuzz at its core to embellish the rest of the song with intense pop sensibilities, Popstrangers brings an angular approach to an indie pop record.
Choppy chords run throughout, and the chorus sings like a home county warbler, which, matched with the quasi-punk lyrics, makes this track destined for a dirty dancefloor near you.
Joel Flyger’s vocal sounds like a polished Hollywood idol, burning with teenage desire and dripping with languishing detail. It’s perfectly complimented by the filleted, distorted guitar and funk rhythm that bounces and pounds at the brain, signalling that the floor is where your feet belong.
Country Kills is the first release from the forthcoming album Fortuna, which, if this track is anything to go by, may achieve the success that ‘Antipodes’ warranted.
Channelling the ethereal sound of the latter through a pop-punk tube and out the other end with an antipathetic flourish, filled with arthouse sounds but directed at the grand populous.
Perhaps the new album will open the fortunes of the world to these globe trotters.
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