TOPS NEW ALBUM, I FEEL ALIVE, OUT TODAY VIA MUSIQUE TOPS

BUY / STREAM I FEEL ALIVE HERE

"Their strongest songs yet... Tops are now up there with Phoenix as the masters of modern soft rock." - **** The Guardian

"guaranteed to brighten your mood" - CBC Music

"It's a pleasurable, sun-drenched record — the work of a band who've found their voice, louder and clearer than before" - Exclaim

"One of Canada's most consistent musical exports" - NYLON

"Unassuming but fascinatingly complex" - The FADER

"Indie pop bliss." - Pitchfork

"One of the most riveting and peerless acts in indie rock" - Stereogum

"Their chemistry is plain to see" - Paste Magazine

TOP_web3_JustinAranha.jpg

Photo Credit : Justin Aranha // DOWNLOAD HI-RES

Today, Montreal four-piece TOPS release their newest album I Feel Alive via their own label Musique TOPS. On the new album, their trademark sound of beguiling melodies over soft-rock grooves, with touches of '80s sophisti-pop and a contemporary experimental palette is intact, but bolder and more expansive. The songs manage to be both immediately catchy and deceptively deep, with Penny's literary lyrics adding an extra dimension to the pure pop hooks. Satisfying yet far from predictable, I Feel Alive is a record to be savored, revealing itself slowly, gaining power and poignancy with each listen.

TOPS began to write I Feel Alive in Montreal after an extended sabbatical where all members lived in different cities without working on new material or touring. Coming together with a renewed sense of energy, the result is an introspective and resilient album that immediately hits and lingers. The record is their fourth full-length, following 2017's Sugar At The Gate and follows singles "Echo of Dawn" and "Seven Minutes" from last year. The album also includes previous singles "Direct Sunlight", which singer Jane Penny described as "a song to remind myself that it's up to me to choose the perspective that I take,"  "Colder & Closer", which came with a striking Mashie Alam-directed thermal vision video, the upbeat "Witching Hour", and the album's title-track. 

WATCH AND SHARE “COLDER & CLOSER” HERE

The artwork for TOPS' fourth LP sets the tone for the music enclosed. Inspired by the work of photographer Thomas Ruff, TOPS' vocalist Jane Penny stares bare-faced down the lens-simple and un-posed, yet striking with starkness and vulnerability.

The image captures the fraught nature of being alive, which the 11 tracks on the album explore. Penny's remarkably expressive voice is front and centre. On this record more than any other, she sings with passion and energy, without sacrificing the honesty and introspection that gives her voice its depth. The songs cover a range of experiences but at its heart I Feel Alive is a record about resilience, the ways we can grow from for our pain and the strength that comes from learning to stand on your own as an individual.

For I Feel Alive, the band members convened in a basement studio in Montreal, recording for the first time with keyboardist Marta Cikojevic who joined the band as a live member in 2017. "From the first time we practiced with her it was clear that we were in sync musically, and we found ourselves improvising together at the first rehearsal" says Penny. "Having Marta manning the keys allowed me to reach for my flute, and gave me the chance to integrate my flute playing with the writing process, using it as an expressive instrument rather than more production element which it has been in the past." 

LISTEN AND SHARE “WITCHING HOUR” HERE

She continues: "We'd spent a lot of time apart, not working on new stuff or touring, just living life, all in different cities," says Penny. When we went to make I Feel Alive we all had a good sense of what we were trying to do and a renewed energy towards playing together. The goal was to get in a room together and play, not holding anything back."

"It was a quick process," says guitarist and fellow song-writer David Carriere. "We would work all day writing a song and then demo them the same evening, relying on our natural chemistry as a band to let the songs come into their own." The band's line-up is completed by Riley Fleck on drums.

Title track "I Feel Alive" is a bracing pop gem with darker undertones. An ode to new love, Penny sings "I feel alive looking in your eyes" with the exuberance that comes with the early stages of romance, the discovery of a deep love. But love is complicated, and within the joy and happiness is the pain of leaving someone else behind. "When I saw you wanted to spend the night with someone else at home," she sings, "I knew it wasn't right." This honest admission that happiness can come at the expense of others adds another dimension to the song's ecstatic energy. True love defies us to overcome others expectations, and that's a good thing. People may be watching, but why should you care.

Opposing and it, "Colder and Closer" is a sonic departure, with programmed synths and metallic drumming, the song shimmers. A tribute to seeking meaning in an increasingly confusing world Penny sings "Searching constellations/seeing if the stars align." But she doesn't take comfort in the stars, rejecting fate as something arbitrary, though not quite meaningless. "Signs are myths like nations/shapes drawn over crooked lines."The song is swift and lean, a pop confection, but it's also ripe with meditations on the social isolation that plagues casual intimacy. It's a prime example of the way TOPS layer meaning within pop songwriting. Beneath the soaring melodies and crisp production, I Feel Alive balances the giddiness of a new relationship with the agony of leaving old things behind. It's an introspective record that you can dance to, music that hits in an immediate rush but sticks around, lingering like the memory of a perfect doomed love affair-both the joy and the pain, until it becomes a part of your life forever.

BUY / STREAM I FEEL ALIVE HERE

TOPS_LP_cover_IFA.jpg

DOWNLOAD HI-RES

1. Direct Sunlight
2. I Feel Alive
3. Pirouette
4. Ballads & Sad Movies
5. Colder & Closer
6. Witching Hour
7. Take Down
8. Drowning In Paradise
9. OK Fine Whatever
10. Looking To Remember
11. Too Much

TOPS ONLINE
WEBSITE
TWITTER
FACEBOOK
INSTAGRAM

TOPS SHARES NEW SONG DIRECT SUNLIGHT


TOPS SHARES NEW SONG "DIRECT SUNLIGHT"

LISTEN AND SHARE “DIRECT SUNLIGHT” HERE

NEW ALBUM I FEEL ALIVE DUE APRIL 3RD VIA MUSIQUE TOPS

PRE-ORDER I FEEL ALIVE HERE

"irresistible" Gorilla vs. Bear

"Indie pop bliss." Pitchfork

"One of the most riveting and peerless acts in indie rock" Stereogum

"One of Canada's most consistent musical exports" NYLON

TOPS-PressPhoto-4-Justin-Aranha.jpg


Photo Credit : Justin Aranha // DOWNLOAD HI-RES

Today, Montreal four-piece TOPS are sharing another new song from their forthcoming album I Feel Alive out April 3rd via their own label Musique TOPS. Recalling the best of Prefab Sprout, "Direct Sunlight" is classic pop songwriting highlighted by bouncy synth stabs, the ever breezy vocals of Jane Penny, and even a whimsical flute solo. The track is the latest offering from the new album following  "Colder & Closer", "Witching Hour", and the album's title-track

Speaking on the song, Penny says: "I went to this outdoor pool with Olympic style diving boards one summer day in Berlin, and when I tried to jump off the middle one, I think it was about 5 metres high, I really surprised myself when I realised that I'm terrified of heights. My whole body entered this panicked state, the phobia kicked in right away, and I had to do the walk of shame down the ladder and back to the pool. I wanted to capture that duality, the way that even the sunniest days can have this underlying darkness to them, and how it's not just the physical reaction to fear that casts the shadows, but more how the ever looming possibilities of loss or discontent are revealed. I wrote this song to remind myself that it's up to me to choose the perspective that I take."


MORE ABOUT I FEEL ALIVE

The artwork for TOPS' fourth LP sets the tone for the music enclosed. Inspired by the work of photographer Thomas Ruff, TOPS' vocalist Jane Penny stares bare-faced down the lens-simple and un-posed, yet striking with starkness and vulnerability.

The image captures the fraught nature of being alive, which the 11 tracks on the album explore. Penny's remarkably expressive voice is front and center. On this record more than any other,she sings with passion and energy, without sacrificing the honesty and introspection that gives her voice its depth. The songs cover a range of experiences but at it's heart I Feel Alive is a record about resilience, the ways we can grow from for our pain and the strength that comes from learning to stand on your own as an individual.

I Feel Alive is TOPS' fourth full-length, following 2017's Sugar At The Gate and follows singles "Echo of Dawn" and "Seven Minutes" from last year. Their trademark sound of beguiling melodies over soft-rock grooves, with touches of '80s sophisti-pop and a contemporary experimental palette is intact, but bolder and more expansive. The songs manage to be both immediately catchy and deceptively deep, with Penny's literary lyrics adding an extra dimension to the pure pop hooks. Satisfying yet far from predictable, this is a record to be savored, revealing itself slowly, gaining power and poignancy with each listen.

For I Feel Alive, the band members convened in a basement studio in Montreal, recording for the first time with keyboardist Marta Cikojevic who joined the band as a live member in 2017. "From the first time we practiced with her it was clear that we were in sync musically, and we found ourselves improvising together at the first rehearsal" says Penny. "Having Marta manning the keys allowed me to reach for my flute, and gave me the chance to integrate my flute playing with the writing process, using it as an expressive instrument rather than more production element which it has been in the past." 

She continues: "We'd spent a lot of time apart, not working on new stuff or touring, just living life, all in different cities," says Penny. When we went to make I Feel Alive we all had a good sense of what we were trying to do and a renewed energy towards playing together. The goal was to get in a room together and play, not holding anything back."

"It was a quick process," says guitarist and fellow song-writer David Carriere. "We would work all day writing a song and then demo them the same evening, relying on our natural chemistry as a band to let the songs come into their own." The band's line-up is completed by Riley Fleckon drums.

Title track "I Feel Alive" is a bracing pop gem with darker undertones. An ode to new love, Penny sings "I feel alive looking in your eyes" with the exuberance that comes with the early stages of romance, the discovery of a deep love. But love is complicated, and within the joy and happiness is the pain of leaving someone else behind. "When I saw you wanted to spend the night with someone else at home," she sings, "I knew it wasn't right." This honest admission that happiness can come at the expense of others adds another dimension to the song's ecstatic energy. True love defies us to overcome others expectations, and that's a good thing. People may be watching, but why should you care.

Opposing and it, "Colder and Closer" is a sonic departure, with programmed synths and metallic drumming, the song shimmers. A tribute to seeking meaning in an increasingly confusing world Penny sings "Searching constellations/seeing if the stars align." But she doesn't take comfort in the stars, rejecting fate as something arbitrary, though not quite meaningless. "Signs are myths like nations/shapes drawn over crooked lines."The song is swift and lean, a pop confection, but it's also ripe with meditations on the social isolation that plagues casual intimacy. It's a prime example of the way TOPS layer meaning within pop songwriting. Beneath the soaring melodies and crisp production, I Feel Alive balances the giddiness of a new relationship with the agony of leaving old things behind. It's an introspective record that you can dance to, music that hits in an immediate rush but sticks around, lingering like the memory of a perfect doomed love affair-both the joy and the pain, until it becomes a part of your life forever.

PRE-ORDER I FEEL ALIVE HERE

TOPS_LP_cover_IFA.jpg

DOWNLOAD HI-RES


1. Direct Sunlight
2. I Feel Alive
3. Pirouette
4. Ballads & Sad Movies
5. Colder & Closer
6. Witching Hour
7. Take Down
8. Drowning In Paradise
9. OK Fine Whatever
10. Looking To Remember
11. Too Much

TOPS ONLINE
WEBSITE
TWITTER
FACEBOOK
INSTAGRAM






TOPS SHARES NEW SONG AND VIDEO "COLDER & CLOSER"

WATCH AND SHARE “COLDER & CLOSER” HERE

NORTH AMERICAN TOUR DATES BEGIN APRIL 3

NEW ALBUM I FEEL ALIVE DUE APRIL 3 VIA MUSIQUE TOPS

PRE-ORDER I FEEL ALIVE HERE

"Indie pop bliss." - Pitchfork

"One of the most riveting and peerless acts in indie rock" - Stereogum

"One of Canada's most consistent musical exports" - NYLON

TOP_web2_JustinAranha.jpg

Photo Credit : Justin Aranha // DOWNLOAD HI-RES

On the heels of their latest single "Witching Hour", Montreal four-piece TOPS are sharing a new song and video. "Colder & Closer" is a shimmering yet lean pop production with lyrical meditations on the social isolation that often plagues casual intimacy. The Mashie Alam directed visual artfully represents this by following singer Jane Penny through an alternating lens of thermal and normal vision.

Speaking on the video, Alam says: "Jane had this really amazing vision where she hoped to convey the feeling of being immensely close to someone. The choice of using thermal footage was made because we wanted to see, feel, and immerse ourselves into the varying temperatures of the body as it heats up, cools down, responds to touch, and feels alone. We created a movement composition that travels between a live action world and a thermal world! The idea was to visually explore the dynamic of being far (in the live action world) and being close (in the thermal world)! Eventually the juxtaposing jumps between the two worlds merge into an immersive thermal universe to evoke a climactic sense of closeness from where there is no return."

WATCH AND SHARE “COLDER & CLOSER” HERE

"Colder & Closer" is the latest offering from TOPS' new album, I Feel Alive, out April 3 via their own label Musique TOPS, following the aforementioned "Witching Hour" and the album's title-track. The song also arrives ahead of TOPS' tour this Spring. Beginning April 3 in Las Vegas, they'll make stops in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, and more. They'll be joined by Honey Harper, Sorry Girls, and Better Person on select dates. Tickets are available on their website.

MORE ABOUT I FEEL ALIVE

The artwork for TOPS' fourth LP sets the tone for the music enclosed. Inspired by the work of photographer Thomas Ruff, TOPS' vocalist Jane Penny stares bare-faced down the lens-simple and un-posed, yet striking with starkness and vulnerability.

The image captures the fraught nature of being alive, which the 11 tracks on the album explore. Penny's remarkably expressive voice is front and center. On this record more than any other,she sings with passion and energy, without sacrificing the honesty and introspection that gives her voice its depth. The songs cover a range of experiences but at it's heart I Feel Alive is a record about resilience, the ways we can grow from for our pain and the strength that comes from learning to stand on your own as an individual.

LISTEN AND SHARE “WITCHING HOUR” HERE

I Feel Alive is TOPS' fourth full-length, following 2017's Sugar At The Gate and follows singles "Echo of Dawn" and "Seven Minutes" from last year. Their trademark sound of beguiling melodies over soft-rock grooves, with touches of '80s sophisti-pop and a contemporary experimental palette is intact, but bolder and more expansive. The songs manage to be both immediately catchy and deceptively deep, with Penny's literary lyrics adding an extra dimension to the pure pop hooks. Satisfying yet far from predictable, this is a record to be savored, revealing itself slowly, gaining power and poignancy with each listen.

For I Feel Alive, the band members convened in a basement studio in Montreal, recording for the first time with keyboardist Marta Cikojevic who joined the band as a live member in 2017. "From the first time we practiced with her it was clear that we were in sync musically, and we found ourselves improvising together at the first rehearsal" says Penny. "Having Marta manning the keys allowed me to reach for my flute, and gave me the chance to integrate my flute playing with the writing process, using it as an expressive instrument rather than more production element which it has been in the past." 

She continues: "We'd spent a lot of time apart, not working on new stuff or touring, just living life, all in different cities," says Penny. When we went to make I Feel Alive we all had a good sense of what we were trying to do and a renewed energy towards playing together. The goal was to get in a room together and play, not holding anything back."

"It was a quick process," says guitarist and fellow song-writer David Carriere. "We would work all day writing a song and then demo them the same evening, relying on our natural chemistry as a band to let the songs come into their own." The band's line-up is completed by Riley Fleckon drums.

WATCH AND SHARE "I FEEL ALIVE" HERE

Title track "I Feel Alive" is a bracing pop gem with darker undertones. An ode to new love, Penny sings "I feel alive looking in your eyes" with the exuberance that comes with the early stages of romance, the discovery of a deep love. But love is complicated, and within the joy and happiness is the pain of leaving someone else behind. "When I saw you wanted to spend the night with someone else at home," she sings, "I knew it wasn't right." This honest admission that happiness can come at the expense of others adds another dimension to the song's ecstatic energy. True love defies us to overcome others expectations, and that's a good thing. People may be watching, but why should you care.

Opposing and it, "Colder and Closer" is a sonic departure, with programmed synths and metallic drumming, the song shimmers. A tribute to seeking meaning in an increasingly confusing world Penny sings "Searching constellations/seeing if the stars align." But she doesn't take comfort in the stars, rejecting fate as something arbitrary, though not quite meaningless. "Signs are myths like nations/shapes drawn over crooked lines."The song is swift and lean, a pop confection, but it's also ripe with meditations on the social isolation that plagues casual intimacy. It's a prime example of the way TOPS layer meaning within pop songwriting. Beneath the soaring melodies and crisp production, I Feel Alive balances the giddiness of a new relationship with the agony of leaving old things behind. It's an introspective record that you can dance to, music that hits in an immediate rush but sticks around, lingering like the memory of a perfect doomed love affair-both the joy and the pain, until it becomes a part of your life forever.

PRE-ORDER I FEEL ALIVE HERE

TOUR DATES
4/3 - Las Vegas, NV @ Bunkhouse Saloon*
4/4 - Tucson, AZ @ 191 Toole*
4/5 - Phoenix, AZ @ Valley Bar*
4/6 - El Paso, TX @ Lowbrow Palace*
4/7 - Marfa, TX @ Lost Horse Saloon*
4/9 - Austin, TX @ Mohawk*
4/10 - San Antonio, TX @ Paper Tiger*
4/11 - Dallas, TX @ Club Dada*
4/13 - Memphis, TN @ The Hi Tone Cafe*
4/14 - Atlanta, GA @ Terminal West*
4/15 - Asheville, NC @ The Mothlight*
4/16 - Washington D.C. @ Union Stage*^
4/17 - Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda's^
4/18 - New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom*^
4/20 - Boston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall*^
4/21 - Montreal, QC @ Theatre Rialto#^
4/22 - Toronto, ON @ Adelaide Hall#^
4/23 - Detroit, MI @ Deluxx Fluxx#^
4/24 - Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle#^
4/25 - Minneapolis, MN @ Turf Club#^
4/28 - Vancouver, BC @ Imperial Theatre#
4/29 - Seattle, WA @ The Crocodile#
4/30 - Portland, OR @ Doug Fir Lounge#
5/1 - San Francisco, CA @ The Independent#
5/2 - Los Angeles, CA @ El Rey Theatre#
5/4 - San Diego, CA @ Music Box#
5/11 - Berlin, Germany @ Berghain Kantine 
5/12 - Hamburg, Germany @ Molotow
5/13 - Köln, Germany @ Bumann & Sohn
5/14 - Münster, Germany @ Gleis 22 
5/15 - Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Paradiso
5/16 - Paris, France @ Le Beau festival @ La Station
5/18 - Brighton, UK @ The Hope & Ruin
5/19 - Nottingham, UK @ Bodega
5/20 - Dublin, Ireland @ Whelan's
5/21 - Glasgow, UK @ Stereo
5/22 - Manchester, UK @ YES 
5/23 - London, UK @ All Points East Festival
5/24 - Bristol, UK @ The Louisiana
5/25 - Birmingham, UK @ Hare and Hounds
5/27 - Lille, France @ La Bulle Café
5/28 - Brussels, Belgium @ Botanique
5/29 - Groningen, Netherlands @ Vera 
5/30 - Utrecht, Netherlands @ Ekko 
6/1 - Barcelona, Spain @ Primavera Sound @ Sala Apolo
6/3 - Lyon, France @ Sonic
6/4 - Zurich, Switzerland @ Zukunft
6/5 - Milano, Italy @ Ohibo

* = w/ Honey Harper
# = w/ Sorry Girls
^ = w/ Better Person

TOPS_LP_cover_IFA.jpg


DOWNLOAD HI-RES

1. Direct Sunlight
2. I Feel Alive
3. Pirouette
4. Ballads & Sad Movies
5. Colder & Closer
6. Witching Hour
7. Take Down
8. Drowning In Paradise
9. OK Fine Whatever
10. Looking To Remember
11. Too Much

TOPS ONLINE
WEBSITE
TWITTER
FACEBOOK
INSTAGRAM