Don’t fast forward to the finale, but please do listen up to the goddamn majestic brass that sends this song off in the closing bars and shudder with delight: Girl-boy vocals entwine, sweet-without-being-saccharine-sentiments unfold, it’s like Sufjan at his most joyful. We first wrote about the the Brooklyn-based, New Zealand septet a year ago, on the strength of their EPS Vol I and Vol II. On those records the vibe had much more of a folk lean—banjos were present and accounted for. With this new track “Diamonds,” SOL have teamed up with producer John Agnello (Kurt Vile, Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr), and it’s clear they’re kicking into a higher gear, creating a fulsome, surround-sound, plush kind of pop.
The Streets of Laredo had this to say about the song: “We’d been touring the songs from Vol I and II for over a year and a half and were literally gagging to get into the studio and make something new. We needed to just be in a room together and create something that didn’t exist before. An opportunity came up to record with John Agnello so we booked a day with him and banged it out. This song had been floating around for a month or so before we road tested it out on our European tour earlier this year. It feels like a gun we haven’t shot before.”
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Streets of Laredo Tour Dates
June 2 at Iron Horse Music Hall in Northampton, MA
June 3 at World Café Live Upstairs in Philadelphia, PA
June 4 at StageOne in Fairfield, CT
June 5 at Power Plant Live in Baltimore, MD
June 7 at Governors Ball Music Festival in New York, NY
The bands forthcoming LP will be released via Dine Alone in 2016.
