Chapel Club – new album news
After a lengthy (for a youngish band) break, Chapel Club return with new songs and a distinct shift in direction. I had included Palace in my top albums of last year for reasons of hope as much as anything else. Yet it seems any post-punk leanings have given way to a spasmodic dancefloor vibe. The band have made four new songs available via their website including a free download. This is a taster for the new album, Good Together but I am not sure these tracks will please the existing fanbase.
Lewis left this statement:
These four songs (like the album entire) are pretty different from our old stuff, and we realise that may disappoint some of our fans. We didn’t aim to mess with anyone’s hopes or expectations, but we also knew we couldn’t keep doing this if we had to spend another 18 months writing and playing The Big Music. We formed and were signed so quickly that we never really talked about what kind of band we wanted to be. So while it was amazing that lots of people embraced the music, and while we knew it had its strengths, we also knew we wanted to approach the second record in a different spirit.
This time around we wanted to create something fresh, for us as much as everyone else – something bright and playful and surprising. Looking back, the first record was kind of a comedown record, whether coming down from a drug or a relationship or the hopes of your youth or whatever. And I guess at some point I realised that, while I was singing like it was all over, actually it wasn’t; it was just beginning. So this time the band decided that, whatever the emotional direction of a song or a lyric – even if it was about feeling sad or scared or confused – we’d try to turn those feelings into something more active and productive than a grandiose whinge. That’s what lots of my favourite pop songs do, and Good Together is above all else a pop record. It feels strangely thrilling to say that.