On thing we can all agree on is that this year has sucked. Like no year ever before has sucked. Unexpected bad news was so relenting that it became expected and was usually met with, “Of course. It’s 2020.” Conventional wisdom tells us things aren’t going to get better any time soon, but perhaps the turning of the calendar page to 2021 might provide some well-needed relief. A new year, a new administration, a new hope.
One of the things we’re looking forward to in 2021 is the new album from MAGNET fave the Orange Peels: Celebrate The Moments Of Your Life. (If you’re of a certain age, you’ll remember the cheesy coffee commercials.) But OP frontman Allen Clapp knew we would need something a little stronger than his usual brew after 2020, so he made it a double. And if your year was bad, Clapp’s was worse, with him having to deal with death and natural disaster over and above the pandemic and the political damage done. (Coincidentally, 2020 was the title of the Orange Peels’ 2009 LP.)
The second single from Celebrate The Moments Of Your Life (Minty Fresh) is “Birds Are Louder,” a self-described “apocalyptic party song.” On it, Clapp and bandmates Jill Pries and Gabriel Coan struggle with the uncertainty of starting to forget how things were while also worrying if life will ever get back to normal. “Birds Are Louder” is a heavy-topic song, but you can take comfort its soothing sounds and life-affirming lyrics. It urges you to be present in the present, to be here now.
“It was a bit of an out-of-body experience to be holed up in the studio, creating and living in our own world, while the ‘real world’ was battening down, trying to make sense of what was happening,” says Coan. “It was like we were looking in from an entirely different plane of existence.”
“I think that perspective, along with the anything-goes approach to these sessions, is what led us to ‘Birds Are Louder,'” says Clapp. “This song is unlike anything we’ve ever done.”
We’re proud to premiere “Birds Are Louder” today at MAGNET. Check it out right here, right now.
