Stream: Film School, ‘Is This a Hotel?’ and ‘Don’t You Ever’

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Film School

West Coast shoegazers Film School continue to demonstrate what a fine idea it was to call class back into session a couple of years ago. Their 2018 album “Bright to Death,” their first in eight years, felt like the crest of a hill they’d begun climbing with their early albums between 2001 and ’10. The singles they released last year, “Influencer” and “Go (But Not Too Far),” showed that their dreamy guitar textures, ethereal vocals and undulating beats could still move the dial on your mood.

Film School — currently Greg Bertens, Jason Ruck, Nyles Lannon, Justin Labo and Adam Wade — return this week with a two-song single titled “Swim.” Both “Is This a Hotel?” and “Don’t You Ever” offer a sound bath of warm atmospherics riding a current of insistent rhythms, gently stirred by co-producer Dan Long. The mystery of “Don’t You Ever” is heightened by the guest vocals of Noël Brydebell of L.A. dream-poppers Wild Signals.

“These two songs are about recovery,” Bertens told KEXP, where “Swim” premiered. “Sometimes I find myself writing out fragments of conversations I’m having with myself. There’s a lot of back-and-forth head talk in these songs, challenging some clichés I’ve come to believe as well as weird stories I’ve told myself about myself. I think when you take an inventory of your head you find situations where you cast yourself in the best light, and some in the worst, but you sorta have to kill your ego if you want to get any kind of clarity on it all.”

||| Stream: “Is This a Hotel?” and “Don’t You Ever”

||| Previously: “Influencer,” “Crushin” “Bye Bye Bird” “City Lights”