Video: Double Wish, ‘Pleasure’

Kevin Bronson on July 31st, 2023

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Double Wish’s sophisticated psych-pop offered a familiar feint: That which sounds happy is not always so.

Adam Sabolick started the project during the pandemic, and Double Wish’s first EP, “Light Split Sparkle,” arrived this spring. Now that six-song releases gets a four-song addendum, and “Light Split Sparkle” (Expanded)” comes out this Friday.

“Pleasure” is the new single from Sabolick and collaborator Phillippe Andre, out with a video of the duo seeming to let the good times roll. “This is a song about the pursuit of desire,” Sabolick says simply. “Pleasing and being pleased.” Those drawn to Double Wish’s early singles “Fever Dream” and “Sugary Plum” will recognize the artist’s delicate dance between airy and melancholy, aesthetics that make not-so-strange bedfellows and which Sabolick calls “dark sunshine pop.”

The songwriter explains that his inspiration came from spending time with the Mamas & the Papas’ seminal album “People Like Us,” sending him in an artistic direction that was more psychological than sonic. “When they recorded this, their relationships with each other and themselves were so complex. Romance, substance abuse, and the illusion of optimism that taunted their careers all came to the surface,” Sabolick explains. “I see a similarity in the way I express myself through songwriting. There’s a constant tension between optimism and pessimism. I also think that our ‘California’ sound is balanced by lyrical content that is a bit ‘behind the curtain’ or ‘existential.’”

||| Watch: The video for “Pleasure”