The Growlers have shared a pair of new singles, entitled “Dream World” and “Random Everyone”. These songs mark the California beach goth group’s first releases since 2019’s Natural Affair.
The band has not announced any new album yet, so “Dream World” could very well be the lead or title track. In the past, however, The Growlers have released standalone singles that never found their way onto an album, including 2018’s “Who Loves the Scum?” and “End of the World”.
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“Dream World” finds the band in a far more cheery mood than the one they’ve created with nearly 15 years of the beach goth sound. Even the single’s artwork, a colorful mirage of characters casually going about an artistic apocalypse, sets itself apart from the band’s body of work. While Brooks Nielsen comes in with his trademark dreary drawl, the song’s lyrics are a lot more positive than he lets on. Lines like “not as scared as I was before/not afraid of love anymore” glide over buoyant guitar work from Matt Taylor, before the optimistic refrain of “you can find love in the middle of a war.”
“Random Everyone” features more upbeat keyboards attached to a bouncy rhythm. While the song seems to carry the same joyous, if delusional, attitude as “Dream World”, “Random Everyone” quickly shows through its lyrics that this is the same old world of The Growlers, even if the instrumentation is different. “Keep ’em waiting in the dark, alone/ Staring at the phone to glow, waiting for the man to show/But nobody can wait forever/Everyone loves you but it ain’t enough/You’re gonna do whatever you want.” It turns out that the “Dream World” was only a temporary reprieve from the harsh realities of “Random Everyone”.
Listen to “Dream World” and “Random Everyone” by The Growlers.
The Growlers — “Dream World”
[Video: The Growlers]
The Growlers — “Random Everyone”
[Video: The Growlers]
The Growlers are due to hit the road this summer, beginning on July 24th with a show at First Avenue in Minneapolis, MN. Given the highly volatile state of live music due to COVID-19, however, those dates could be subject to change. Yet as more states begin to slowly reopen businesses, perhaps there could be small club dates this summer. Stay tuned to The Growlers’ website for any announcements.