Daiana Feuer on November 21st, 2016

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“I know it can be uncomfortable and almost scary when bands you’ve listened to for years decide to completely change everything,” Barcelona frontman Brian Fennell says. So brace yourselves, because the Seattle trio has redefined themselves once again, shifting towards more experimental instrument sources.

In 2014, the band’s sound evolved from the melodic, piano-driven indie rock they’d been known for since 2005 into R&B-influenced electro-pop, which they spread across that year’s EP trilogy, “The Melodrama.” On their new album, “Basic Man,” released Oct. 14, Fennell, Rhett Stonelake and Branden Cate continue moving things forward in a dreamy, kaleidoscopic pop direction, implementing some vintage electronic instruments, including the Roland Juno, Chroma Polaris, Minimoog D, Dave Smith/Sequential Circuits synthesizers and the Yamaha DX7. “We’ve taken taken it to a different level of layering and sound design, especially vocally,” says Fennell. “Chad Copelin, our producer, has a ridiculous number of quirky, old, half-broken synths and instruments that we’d never seen before.”

The trio used this new sonic palate to paint pictures of the human condition and what drives our actions, desires and intentions. “On ‘Basic Man,’ the underlying theme is desperation – painfully plain and straightforward,” Fennell explains. “Like, I want to be this complex and unique man, but I’m really just like everyone else. Which is super empty and sad when you zoom out from your life and you realize you are just this gray and featureless minion in an army of bros. On one hand that can feel defeating, but on the other it’s totally unifying and comforting to know that you aren’t that special or unusual.”

Here is the premiere for Barcelona’s video for “In The Night.” Colors and shapes move across the screen as a straight-faced Fennell sings into the camera, keeping an intense connection as he muses over the complexities of a relationship, the give and take and compromising in trying to make things work. Is the relationship failing or is it a hopeful song? A little of both.

The band begins touring in early 2017. A Los Angeles date will be announced soon.

||| Watch: “In The Night”