Montreal indie-rock outfit TOPS has unveiled a second single from their forthcoming album I Feel Alive in the form of “Witching Hour,” a woozy, buoyant piece that finds singer Jane Penny at the center of a soul search for feminine power. Filled with the light effervescence of sublime keys and warm guitar tones, all wrapped-up in Penny’s lush and soothing croon, the new track sways with a delicious kind of anxious bliss.
Sonically, “Witching Hour” glows at its center with Marta Cikojevic on the keyboard, bringing to light a shimmering stage from which Penny and company emerge as enchanting as ever. The entire piece feels at once urgently modern, tapping contemporaries like fellow indie-pop souls in Tennis, while also managing to slide smoothly into a Fleetwood Mac album without skipping a` beat.
“Witching Hour is a song about reckoning. David [Carriere] wrote the chorus of the song, and when he showed it to me I gravitated towards the idea of a witching hour as a time of night for unconscious thoughts and uncomfortable visions. The pressure to be feminine has twisted my experience of my own sensuality in this nightmarish way, and I wanted to articulate that by conjuring the nefarious ways that trauma emerges in dreams. There’s a sense of reprisal in witchcraft, of retribution as a means of expression, and I wanted to explore that side of feminine power.”
TOPS will be going on tour this spring with a stop at the El Rey in Los Angeles on May 2. TOPS new album I Feel Alive is out April 3 via Musique Tops, pre-order it here. Visit their Facebook, and Instagram to stay updated on new releases and tour announcements.
Listen to Tops’ new song “Witching Hour”
TOPS tour:
4/3 – Las Vegas, NV @ Bunkhouse Saloon*
4/4 – Tucson, AZ @ 191 Toole*
4/5 – Phoenix, AZ @ Valley Bar*
4/6 – El Paso, TX @ Lowbrow Palace*
4/7 – Marfa, TX @ Lost Horse Saloon*
4/9 – Austin, TX @ Mohawk*
4/10 – San Antonio, TX @ Paper Tiger*
4/11 – Dallas, TX @ Club Dada*
4/13 – Memphis, TN @ The Hi Tone Cafe*
4/14 – Atlanta, GA @ Terminal West*
4/15 – Asheville, NC @ The Mothlight*
4/16 – Washington D.C. @ Union Stage^ 4/17 – Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s^ 4/18 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom^
4/20 – Boston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall*^
4/21 – Montreal, QC @ Theatre Rialto#^
4/22 – Toronto, ON @ Adelaide Hall#^
4/23 – Detroit, MI @ Deluxx Fluxx#^
4/24 – Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle#^
4/25 – Minneapolis, MN @ Turf Club#^
4/28 – Vancouver, BC @ Imperial Theatre#
4/29 – Seattle, WA @ The Crocodile#
4/30 – Portland, OR @ Doug Fir Lounge#
5/1 – San Francisco, CA @ The Independent#
5/2 – Los Angeles, CA @ El Rey Theatre#
5/4 – San Diego, CA @ Music Box#
5/11 – Berlin, Germany @ Berghain Kantine
5/12 – Hamburg, Germany @ Molotow
5/13 – Köln, Germany @ Bumann & Sohn
5/14 – Münster, Germany @ Gleis 22
5/15 – Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Paradiso
5/16 – Paris, France @ Le Beau festival @ La Station
5/18 – Brighton, UK @ The Hope & Ruin
5/19 – Nottingham, UK @ Bodega
5/20 – Dublin, Ireland @ Whelan’s
5/21 – Glasgow, UK @ Stereo
5/22 – Manchester, UK @ YES
5/24 – Bristol, UK @ The Louisiana
5/25 – Birmingham, UK @ Hare and Hounds
5/27 – Lille, France @ La Bulle Café
5/28 – Brussels, Belgium @ Botanique
5/29 – Groningen, Netherlands @ Vera
5/30 – Utrecht, Netherlands @ Ekko
6/1 – Barcelona, Spain @ Primavera Sound @ Sala Apolo
* w/ Honey Harper
# w/ Sorry Girls
^ w/ Better Person
