Stream: The Dodos, ‘Forum’

Daiana Feuer on August 7th, 2018

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This year, the Dodos celebrated the 10th anniversary of the band’s breakout record “Visiter” and it turned out to be just the kick they needed to complete a new album, “Certainty Waves,” their “midlife crisis record” according to songwriter Meric Long. “Who we thought we were, how mistaken we were, how an interference in the trajectory can flip your understanding of what came before.”

Out Oct. 12 via Polyvinyl Record Co., guitarist Long and percussionist Logan Kroeber approached these new songs with a clean slate and no preconceptions, but in the end created something that sounds patently Dodo-esque in the best way. With its mathematical noise, first single “Forum” feels like it could go on forever tirelessly and still find more ways to subtly build upon the churn and burn.

Following the release of their 2015 record “Individ,” Kroeber went back to some sort of ‘real’ job while Long took a hiatus from music following his father’s death and the birth of his child. After some time and sitting with synths his dad left him, Long revealed a solo project, FAN, and while he wanted to write new songs for the Dodos, he was struggling. “I was a little bit lost in terms of which direction the record should go,” explains Long.

When he and Kroeber revisited “Visiter” for the first time in eight years to prepare for an anniversary show in San Francisco, Long found inspiration. “Rather than thinking about the end result or considering the reaction of the listener, I tried to give in to gut reactions, first impulses, however silly or untrue to form they may be,” says Long. “If it was exciting in any way, we pursued it without hesitancy or question.” Long also credits the creation and home-recording of his solo album as pivotal in shaping the new Dodos. “It’s without question that ‘Certainty Waves’ would be a completely different record, or perhaps would not have existed, had I not done ‘Barton’s Den.'”

||| Stream: “Forum”