Touché Amoré are back with another sneak preview of their forthcoming Spiral in a Straight Line full-length, with their new single mixing blockbuster post-hardcore riffage and a pensive cinephile’s touch. The band’s tribute to late director Hal Ashby is likewise titled after him.
A press release explains that the song took influence from Ashby’s filmography, and the “tragically misunderstood characters” of Seventies counterculture films likes Harold and Maude and Being There. Accordingly, and above the band’s distorted and propulsive melancholia, vocalist Jeremy Bolm passionately screams his way through “the idea of misunderstandings…and…his desperate need for some kind of course correction.”
A reality-blurring music video, which you’ll find up above, conjures film history with an opening, mock Paramount logo, and shots of Bolm sitting in a movie theater watching a film that may or may not be tied to his own life. The rest of the video is full of seemingly candid conversations, cinnamon rolls, and scenic drives in a full-length hearse.
“The ‘Hal Ashby’ music video is half a love letter to Hal and half a dream-like interpretation of the song as a whole,” Bolm said in a statement, adding that the full package is about, “Something that can be misunderstood as this or that — and finding the grace in-between.”
As previously reported, Touché Amoré’s Ross Robinson-produced Spiral in a Straight Line is out October 11th via Rise Records. The album is set to feature guest spots from Julien Baker (boygenius) and Lou Barlow (Dinosaur Jr., Sebadoh, the Folk Implosion).
Touché Amoré are supporting the album with a fall North American tour alongside Soul Glo, Portrayal of Guilt and Soft Blue Shimmer. You’ll find the date details here.