What’s up with Warpaint’s new song “New Song”?

Warpaint always had a thing with their song names: often they were more working titles than references to what the song is about. There are no elephants in “Elephants”, no bees in “Bees” and “Billie Holiday” is not about Billie Holiday, but actually a semi-cover of a Mary Wells song.

Naming an anticipated new song “New Song” is very much in line, except that there is an actual chorus going “Your a new song to me”. Sing-along choruses are not really a Warpaint thing and neither is that bouncy, upbeat melody made from pitched vocal pieces.

What is going on here? We’ll know more September 23rd when their new album “Heads Up” drops, but it looks like they are changing their direction, at least a little. And that’s a good thing. Their second album “Warpaint” was. a continuation and refinement of the sound of their previous releases. That was a good thing too. But they hardly can continue walking the same musical path forever. Yes there are fans who would like that. Until they they wouldn’t anymore, because they have become bored. At some point that is a fate hard to avoid for musicians. Even Radiohead reached the point where a new Radiohead album is just a new Radiohead album, no matter how good it is. But Warpaint does not need to be there, just yet.

“New Song” is still a quintessential Warpaint song: the guitars, the vocal harmonies, the unconventional song structure. The fact that they take their music seriously without taking themselves too seriously. A song that grows on you, like many other of their songs before.

So all good and no reason to expect anything else than a fabulous new album.

Listen to “New Song”:

https://youtu.be/_PhAMlJDMeI