Stream: Automatic, ‘Skyscraper’

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Automatic (Photo by Dana Trippe)

Fresh off their sweltering appearances at the weekend’s Cruel World festival, L.A. trio Automatic returned today another deadpan delight from their sophomore album, “Excess,” out June 24 via Stones Throw.

Few bands are updating the sounds of the ’80s underground with more cultural currency than the trio of Izzy Glaudini, Lola Dompé and Halle Saxon-Gaines, and “Skyscraper,” strafed by siren synths, is but another example.

The band describes the new single “Skyscraper” as imagining a Patrick Bateman type — a corporate sociopath who complains about affordable housing going up in his neighborhood. Says Saxon-Gaines: “It’s about spending your life making money and then spending it to fill the void created by said job.” Adds Dompé: “Kind of like going to L.A. to live your dreams.”

Automatic might sound unperturbed, but maybe there’s a slight hint of condemnation when they toss off the line, “Every dollar gets you off.”

||| Stream: “Skyscraper”

||| Previously: “Venus Hour,” “New Beginning,” Quarantunes playlist, live (with Bauhaus) at the Palladium, “Strange Conversations,” “Too Much Money” / “Calling It”