Kevin Bronson on May 10th, 2016

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On the EPs they released the past two Novembers, L.A. quartet Forebear have proven the antidote to everything cookie-cutter about folk and pop music these days. They make songs that change like cloud formations, raining down melancholy, parting for the occasional ray of sunshine, evoking strength against the headwinds of the big, bad world. Singer-guitarist Scott Goldbaum sings way up there, but from his words you know he feels it deep down. He sees tragedy you might choose to ignore.

The actor with the commanding screen presence is an apt metaphor for Forebear’s new single “Delroy Lindo,” which throws shade at the whole notion of California dreamin’. It’s “about two people who moved to the West Coast (one from Kentucky and the other Colorado) to be together, only to have the illusion of what they thought waited for them be eaten alive by their false romanticism,” Goldbaum says, calling it “a somewhat darker tinge to the sunny promises of California.” Sonically, the song conjures up Local Natives hanging with suddenly string-obsessed Radiohead.

“Day to day we avoid the topic / who of us is bold enough to call it quits,” Goldbaum sings while Molly Rogers joins the dialogue with mad dashes on her viola.

The single is the first from Forebear’s new full-length, “Good God,” which the foursome will be releasing at live shows beginning later this month. Goldbaum, along with bandmates Mike Musselman (drums), Rogers (viola/vocals/keys) and Nick Chamian (bass/vocals), made the album with producer Eric Lilavois (Atlas Genius, Saint Motel, et al) in a week-long session at London Bridge Studio in Seattle. Expect to be surprised.

||| Stream: “DelRoy Lindo”

||| Previously: “Cody” EP, “Eon,” “People’s Champ,” “North Korea and the Five Stages of Grief”