Ahead of their forthcoming UK and European tour, Melbourne’s CITY CALM DOWN have revealed their new single, PRIDE, taken from their recently released ECHOES IN BLUE album.
Glorious and introspective, PRIDE is a surging anthem that, says frontman Jack Bourke, “Explores the feelings of lashing out at loved ones because of personal insecurities, and pushing them away without explaining why”. It’s a true highlight from their critically acclaimed second album which reached the Top 20 in the Australian Album Chart on release.
ECHOES IN BLUE is CITY CALM DOWN’s most sweeping, universal material to date. Anchoring the album’s epic pop drive is the band’s accomplished song writing, which catalogues the mounting anxieties of our age with an unflinching eye. As more of our daily life becomes pressurised to meet endless round-the-clock demands, CITY CALM DOWN meditate on what’s being lost in translation and why it matters.
Speaking about the album, Jack Bourke adds: “Echoes in Blue is not concerned with answering questions as much as it is asking them. It is interested in the reality of being spread too thin, of being unable to shut out the noise, where we’re told to buy a house with a mountain of debt. Do we do what we love? To be passionate and driven, whilst making enough time for our wife or husband, for our boyfriend or girlfriend, for our children, parents and friends? Has life ever been more exciting or more artificial? Why are we so connected yet feel so alone? Perhaps, in all this excitement, we forget to be bored and forget to examine ourselves a little more closely. Or maybe we should just embrace the rage?”
CITY CALM DOWN will return to return to the UK and Europe in May for an extensive string of shows that will see them perform multiple times at this year’s Great Escape Festival in Brighton and Gold Sounds Festival in Leeds. Full dates as follows:
MAY
Thu 17 BRIGHTON Great Escape Festival
Sun 20 LEEDS Gold Sounds Festival
Mon 21 GLASGOW King Tuts
Wed 23 MANCHESTER Deaf Institute
Thu 24 LONDON Borderline
Fri 25 AMSTERDAM London Calling @ Paradiso
Sat 26 HAMBURG Nochtwache
Mon 28 BERLIN Privatclub
“… City Calm Down’s brooding post-punk draws to mind the melancholy melody of The Cure or White Lies, but comes propelled by the kind of basslines that Joy Division and New Order man Peter Hook would be proud of …” NME
“… Mesmerising … already mixing up to be one of the breakthrough names emerging from Down Under in 2018 …” DORK MAGAZINE
“… City Calm Down embrace new wave and electro-punk, injecting the Joy Division-New Order continuum with traces of The National’s dignified swagger …” STEREOGUM
“… A grand and soaring declaration cutting through darkness with streaks of light …” THE 405
“… A biting return tinged with lyrical sadness …” CLASH MAGAZINE
Two years on from their surefooted debut, IN A RESTLESS HOUSE, Jack Bourke [vocals] Sam Mullaly [synths and keyboards] Jeremy Sonnenberg [bass] and Lee Armstrong [drums and percussion] have consolidated their strengths and stretched their horizons for ECHOES IN BLUE. Recorded in Melbourne with producer and long-time collaborator Malcolm Besley, the new album explores the emotional idiosyncrasies of our modern changing world, rendered in glistening keyboards, chugging guitars and triumphant horns.
You can watch the videos for the two previous singles from the album here:
IN THIS MODERN LAND:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCR7k0qg
XKA JOAN, I’M DISAPPEARING:
ECHOES IN BLUE | TRACK LISTING
* JOAN, I’M DISAPPEARING
* IN THIS MODERN LAND
* DISTRACTION / LOSING SLEEP
* BLAME
* APRIL 18
* DECISION FATIGUE
* KINGDOM
* BLOOD
* I HEARD NOTHING FROM YOU
* AMBER
* PRIDE
* ECHOES IN BLUE
WEBSITE: www.citycalmdown.com
FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/citycalmdown
TWITTER: www.twitter.com/ccdmusic
INSTAGRAM: www.instagram.com/citycalmdownmusic
