Song of the Day: The Proper Ornaments - Back Pages

Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part of our Song of the day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJ’s think you should hear. Today’s song, featured on the Midday Show with Cheryl Waters, is "Back Pages" by The Proper Ornaments, from their 2017 album, Foxhole, on Slumberland Records.

The Proper Ornaments - Back Pages (MP3)Anyone with nothing good to say about 2016 would benefit from The Proper Ornaments strong entrance into the new year. The release of their sophomore LP, Foxhole, led straight into a four-week tour of Europe, followed by a break before some more European one-off dates over the next few months.

Sonically, the East London four-piece psych guitar outfit’s return is similarly hopeful, having left the distortion and aggression of their 2014 release, Wooden Head, for a warm and gently wandering collection of sunny, guitar and piano driven sixties rock throwbacks. This shift to a softer sound comes alongside changes to the projects brain-parents James Hoare (also of Ultimate Painting) and Max Arnold’s mentality and process. A wall in their friendship had exacerbated life related problems on both ends, until the initial sessions for Foxhole. A studio foible had left the session’s master recordings unusable, causing the band to switch to a minimalistic four-track recording setup in Hoare’s own home.

This new, more relaxed fit brought forth music whose white knuckles softened to a gentle hand on a newspaper. In today's featured song, "Back Pages", you can feel the new softness as the guitars gently guide the listener through time-softened memories of being left on the shelf by someone who used to be specific.

After you check out the "Back Pages", be sure to read the front page news about the band on their Facebook page, where, hopefully soon, you'll find more tour dates, maybe even in the U.S. For now, be sure to watch the official video for "Memories", another standout track, damp-but-hopeful, whose assurance that “memories can change / some remain the same / they won’t take your place” offers some hope to any hangover gloom the memories of last year, or the years prior, might still have over you.