Featuring new single ‘Don’t Go Out’
‘By Design’ puts on full display what has been missed during the intervening five years since their last album. Masterful songwriting with intelligent lyrics and a pop sensibility combine to deliver a tour de force… The Electorate deal with the terrors and beauties of middle aged life: a certain world weariness and fatigue expressed with a poignancy and passion over crystalline instrumentation, an arched eyebrow and a wry grin.‘ – BACKSEAT MAFIA – 9/10
The members of The Electorate (Eliot Fish, Josh Morris & Nick Kennedy) have all been part of the Australian music scene for a number of years, with ties to Big Heavy Stuff, Knievel, The Apartments, Imperial Broads, Atticus, and the Templebears. This invaluable experience has shaped their sound and informed their astute musical choices, evident on their 2020 debut album, You Don’t Have Time to Stay Lost, which received a 4.5-star review from Rolling Stone. Their latest album, By Design, produced by Wayne Connolly (Teskey Brothers, Babe Rainbow, Underground Lovers), marks the latest culmination of their musical journeys.
Each of the album’s singles deliberately highlighted a different side of the band — ‘Face of a Giant‘ is angular, ethereal and metronomic, ‘Peace Love & Kindness‘ is frantic, sharp, and political, ‘The Great Divide‘ is vulnerable, honest, and stripped back to its bare bones.
Now with the album release, ‘Don’t Go Out‘ finds the band digging into a knotty Fugazi-styled post-punk rhythm as Josh Morris rides the nervous energy of the song, singing about the realisation of your own anxiety, and how easily that can feed the need to hide away.
One element of The Electorate’s modus operandi, when it came to naming and recording the new album, was their approach in the studio, and how they wanted to arrange and present the DNA of their songs. “The approach to recording By Design was to do more with less, to strip the record back to the core elements of the band,” says Morris. “We wanted to ensure the bare bones of what we did were recorded so well that it could breathe on its own.”
Eliot Fish expands on the album title, musing on the idea that everything in our lives may be predetermined. “Call it determinism or fatalism, choose your poison… No matter what decisions you make, or whatever may befall you, it’s already been written. In that way, I think these songs were destined to arrive fully formed with but a mere nudge from us musicians.”
Across the album, the band explore their myriad influences. You can hear the astute pop songwriting of Neil Finn, jangly indie rock circa The Go-Betweens, angular Interpol-styled post-punk, and the modern Americana of a band such as Wilco, to name just a few.
When it came to songwriting and forming their own sound for the album, the trio expanded their approach, as Morris explains. “Eliot and I have always written songs as individuals that we then bring into the band, which then really shapes and hones them. That’s the case with this record, but what’s really different this time around is that we really harnessed our rehearsal jams and wrote together in a way we’ve never been able to do really well before. Those jams grew into something bigger and better than anything we could have written individually.”
In addition to the diverse singles already released, the album explores a number of themes and ideas, including a kind of ‘Dear John’ letter to Sydney (‘Summer Of Cicadas‘), a celebration of the band’s evolving musical bonds and 30+ year friendship (‘End‘), and that familiar repetitive cycle of daily drudgery that has you creeping towards madness while you dream of something better (‘Sleeping On The Job‘).
From the grand scale of global and humanitarian issues explored in ‘Peace Love & Kindness‘ to the intimate personal struggles addressed in ‘Don’t Go Out‘ and the heart-wrenching friendship breakup depicted in ‘No Turning Back,’ The Electorate delves deep into the world around them, doing so with empathy and honesty. This emotive approach is reflected in the sonic tapestry of their songs, ranging from strident rhythms to reflective melancholy.
Right across the new album, the band consistently re-shape their creative boundaries and refine their craft, delivering consistently thrilling results.
BY DESIGN IS OUT NOW ON BANDCAMP, STREAMING SERVICES, AND AMRAP.
SYDNEY ALBUM LAUNCH
DON’T MISS THE ELECTORATE LAUNCHING BY DESIGN:
SATURDAY JULY 5 – WAYWARDS, NEWTOWN
w/ Rubber Necker and Restless Leg
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