Stream: Luke Top, ‘I May Never Leave’

Kevin Bronson on August 22nd, 2018

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Since Fool’s Gold frontman Luke Top released his solo album “Suspect Highs” in 2016, he has played as a touring member of Electric Guest, teamed up with Mindy Jones to release music as ADLT VDEO and, with longtime friend Jason Quever (Papercuts), opened a recording studio in downtown L.A. In that space he’s gotten back to his solo work, making a new EP, “The Dumb-Show” (out Oct. 19 on his own Grand Gallop label).

Ostensibly a nod to the dumb show that shows up in the headlines every day, “I May Never Leave” is a hazy, nostalgic bummer-pop tune featuring Top’s creamy vocals at their most emotive. “I’d been thinking a lot about boundaries when writing this song- physical, emotional, societal, etc.,” Top says. “This tune is sung from the perspective of someone who feels boxed in but is on the verge of liberation. It’s both sunny and melancholy, an intersection I’m often drawn to, aesthetically speaking. In some ways creating this song was a cathartic exercise. It was all done rather quickly with urgency and intentional looseness.”

While the sentiment in the chorus “I maybe never leave this house again” is understandable, there’s considerable more brightness — a touch of Top’s tropical pop influences — in the EP’s lead track, “I’ve Been Workin’.” It features contributions from drummer Kyle Crane (Daniel Lanois, Neko Case) and Seth Ford-Young (Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros) on upright bass.

||| Stream: “I May Never Leave” and “I’ve Been Workin'”