> STREAM: Smaller Hearts – “Even Ifs”
> STREAM: Smaller Hearts – Attention
RIYL: Pet Shop Boys, Postal Service, Stereolab, OMD
Nova Scotia husband and wife duo Smaller Hearts return recharged after a two-year absence with stunning new album Attention (out today).
Self-produced at their home studio in Dartmouth, the third LP from these veterans of the East Coast scene explores electronic sounds that both diverge and draw inspiration from the indie rock focus of their previous projects, while embracing the artists’ love of both lo-fi and synth-pop sounds.
Focus track “Even Ifs” speaks to a central theme of the album: that our perception of the world around us is shaped, for better or worse, by the things we pay attention to.
“There’s something wistful about being lucky enough to make music during difficult times, and that comes through lyrically and sonically here,” said Smaller Hearts’ Kristina Parlee (she/her) and Ron Bates (he/him) of Even Ifs. “Early versions emphasized the more rhythmic bass and drums parts, but then we flipped the emphasis toward the more washy synth ambience that, until then, had been way in the background. Somehow, that clicked into the song’s mood better, so we left it that way: an upbeat song that flaunts its most downbeat parts.”
Lead single “Double Space” (which climbed to #3 on CBC Radio 3’s Top Ten chart) pushes back against the potential melancholy of self-reflection and embraces positivity and possibility in a track that CBC Music called a “song-of-the-summer contender… a perfect, three-minute escape”.
“We love sad songs, and that usually shows in our songwriting, but something about the long, weird summer of 2020 made us want to try our hand at being a bit more optimistic,” said Bates and Parlee. “These times can be scary and strange, but when a hopeful thought entered our minds, we thought we’d try to run with it. Maybe we needed a break from our own pessimism.”
“But every time we make a move, it’s cut short by deliberating / If anything is left to prove, we can’t leave any time for waiting,” Bates sings on “Double Space,” tempering the duo’s 1980s electro pop slant with an effective minimalism.
Attention is out now on all platforms.
