Jan 13, 2023
By Caleb Campbell
Over the years, indie pop singer/songwriter and producer Paul Jacks has developed an eclectic range of sounds, first while fronting indie outfits Asteroid and Smile Ease, and more recently with a trio of solo albums, Defractor, In Other Words, and 2020’s Black Jackal. This year, he’s back with his fourth full-length record, Amphibious, which finds Jacks pairing with producer Alex Newport (Death Cab for Cutie, Bloc Party, Mars Volta). The record also represents a new direction for Jacks’ writing, with him writing and re-working several of the album’s tracks during the recording process.
Today, Jacks is sharing his first taste of the album with his new single, “Left In A Haste,” premiering with Under the Radar.
“Left In A Haste” is a driving and nervy indie pop effort, sporting sharp melodies, new wave-tinged synths, and stream of consciousness lyricism delivered over a propulsive backbeat. Even with the track’s downcast lyricism, its irrepressible energy leaves it feeling both insistent and refreshingly loose as Jacks rides the rhythms with a winking idiosyncratic charm.
Jacks explains of the song, “On ‘Left In A Haste,’ I tried to avoid conventional lyrical structures to create organic space within the song, a kind of free-flowing stream of consciousness in which the chorus and verse are virtually indiscernible.”
Check out the track below. Amphibious is due out everywhere on March 3rd via Tritone Records.