Art-pop/indie-rock quintet Populuxe introduces their new single, “This Show Is Closed, a track from their upcoming album, Uneasy Listening, slated for release on December 16, 2022.
Uneasy Listening is Populuxe’s sixth full-length album, a post-pandemic arrival at reality. The album manifests the band’s maturity, eschewing false pretenses and empty dreams. Populuxe’s objective is to create new material that captures an honest and challenging artistic vision.
Co-produced by Aaron Tap, Uneasy Listening offers edgy melodies, bent time signatures, heavy chords, and angular guitars.
Populuxe began as a trio in Brooklyn, New York, followed by dropping five long-players and a mini-opera EP. Now expanded to a quintet, Populuxe has performed on the biggest stages in the U.S., along with playing on a broken stripper’s runway in a biker bar in Northeast Minneapolis.
The name – Populuxe – was borrowed from the term referring to the demand for inventive design sandwiched between the end of WWII and the Kennedy assassination. The name infers a sound indicative of ‘deluxe pop,’ which mirrors the band’s innovative sound – a blend of Pink Floyd-like The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, ‘60s garage pop, and ‘70s Bowie.
Band leader Bob Shapiro shares, “We were a bunch of inquisitive kids who were steeped in the wide-ranging radio of the 1970s, fed a steady diet of crass commercialism, and experienced a slew of emotionally confusing events.”
“This Show Is Closed” opens on snapping fingers topped by soft, creamy harmonies, giving the tune lush, low-slung textures. A funk-lite rhythm made up of tight percussion and a fat, rounded bassline infuses the song with a measured cadence. An evocative, wistful voice enters, imbuing the lyrics with nostalgic melancholy.
Resonating with alluring retro flavors, a tantalizing rhythm, and deluxe, glowing harmonies, “This Show Is Closed” is oh-so-stylish.
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