Listen: SoftSpot - "Heat Seeker"

photo by Landon Speers

There are few bands making music as innovative and enjoyable as Brooklyn based experimental rockers SoftSpot and fewer still that are able to maintain the streak of excellent albums the band have essentially been on since debut full length Ensō. Next month sees the release of their third full length studio album Clearing and first single "Abalone" was an reintroduction to what the bands been up to since 2014's MASS. Since MASS the band has officially established themselves as a four piece and are certainly making the most of Jonathan Campolo's synth talents.

Singer/songwriter Sarah Kinlaw has always drawn inspiration from and weaved narratives through the most curious of places and "Heat Seeker", SoftSpot's second single from their upcoming album, is no different. Driving, insistent rhythms set the stage for the sensual reverie that is "Heat Seeker" as Kinlaw explores the boundaries of memory and imagination; dreaming and waking life. "I close my eyes and I can picture you so clear" offers the chorus before Kinlaw delivers one of my favorite moments of the song, a pointed question that properly conveys the song's blurred borders between real life and the fantastical: "Am I awake or am I dreaming now?". It never offers much in the way of answer and it doesn't much need to. On "Heat Seeker" the band are operating on a whole other level. Their melodies and hooks are insanely memorable, their interconnected is positively awe-inspiring, and the band are at their absolute catchiest.

SoftSpot have never suffered from the inaccessible density that plagues several art pop troubadours but much of the band's most winsome moments have been the reward of patient build up and cool downs. Both on "Abalone" and "Heat Seeker" that's hardly the case, the band offering up stellar musical moments right out the gate and then building on them with intricate layers that manage to swiftly support Kinlaw's ear-catching melodies. Clearing offers not only to be the band's most accessible work but their best, a direction of forward, visceral pop with intricate layers and intelligent construction that's sure to serve as a benchmark for the rest of the band's bold artistic choices going forward.



SoftSpot's third full length album Clearing is out April 7th on Arrowhawk Records. You can pre-order the album now and in case you missed it here's previous single "Abalone":