Stream: PAPA, ‘Hold On’

Kevin Bronson on October 22nd, 2015

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“Everyday there’s a shit storm of noise out there,” drummer-singer Darren Weiss says in introducing “Hold On,” the new single from PAPA. “On your radio, on your TV, even in your mind. It’s so easy to get used to these things, that if you don’t have a good hold on yourself, you may not even realize that you’re listening to records that sound nothing like the way you feel, and eventually even your daydreams look like somebody else’s fantasy. It’s what inspired Jagger to sing ‘Satisfaction,’ it’s what inspired Strummer to sing ‘I’m So Bored With The USA,’ and it’s what inspires me to sing ‘Hold On.'”

A more astute mission statement one could scarcely find these days, but does “Hold On” — their first new music (outside of a stray B-side) since PAPA’s 2013 debut “Tender Madness” — deliver the goods? For the most part, yes: From its big, puglistic groove to Weiss’s lobbing lyrical grenades about being subjected to “the soundtrack of your misery,” “Hold On” (out Friday) is a reminder that in taking whatever you’re spoon-fed — music, culture, anything else — you might not get what you need. PAPA, built around the songwriting collaboration of Weiss and Daniel Presant, has a new album in the works for early ’16.

||| Stream: “Hold On”