Just when you thought you had heard it all from The Paper Kites prior to the release of new album, At The Roadhouse, the band have unfurled what is to my mind, a fantastic change of pace in latest release, Black & Thunder.
Unveiling the latest insight into the album (which is to be released on September 1 via Nettwerk Music Group) Black & Thunder, the fourth song released, sees the band shift gears into a more groove-laden mode than the previous three teasers.
This is a hip swaying, greasy-grooved and soulful belter with Christina Lacy’s fuzzed up keyboards, a mesmerizingly simple rhythm layered with subtle percussion and the surety of Sam Benson’s vocal alongside the band’s ever-flawless harmonies. To top it all off, guitarist David Powys lays down some of the band’s finest, and most delectably dirty guitar riffs which punctuate perfectly throughout the song.
“That was a song that seemed to get people out of their seats,” recalls songwriter Sam Bentley of Black & Thunder. “There was a woman who would come to every show and just dance by the fire all night. It was one of the many moments I remember thinking how alive The Roadhouse felt – so rich and vibrant with its many characters.”
Given that the album contains a whopping sixteen songs and the fact that we have now sampled a quarter of that through the pre-releases, this album release is certainly one to be holding your breath for.
One of many striking moments to be found on the album (cover pictured above), their new LP will be the continuation of an odds-defying run for The Paper Kites that has seen them achieve accolades including north of one billion streams on Spotify and continuously-growing sold-out audiences across three continents.
Removing themselves from the typical pageantry that accompanies accolades like that, the group found inspiration for this new album while hand-converting an old gold-mining supply shop into the music venue of their dreams – affectionately dubbed “The Roadhouse”. In Campbells Creek, away from the pressures of daily life, The Paper Kites joyfully filled the venue with music around the clock for weeks on end: creating new songs by day, performing them to a growing fan community at night, and recording right there the next morning. Taking their inspiration from the area’s red earth and bushfire moons, the sixteen songs of the resultant album At The Roadhouse form a touching ode to what waits for us on the winding roads of love, loss, acceptance and wanderlust.
THE PAPER KITES – AT THE ROADHOUSE TRACKLIST:
Midnight Moon
Marietta
Rolling On Easy
Burn The Night Away
Good Nights Gone
June’s Stolen Car
Maria, It’s Time
Green Valleys
I Don’t Want To Go That Way
Pocket Full Of Rain
Mercy
Darkness At My Door
The new album ‘At The Roadhouse’ is out on 1 September, pe-save HERE
All images: As supplied
