{"product_id":"chris-farren-doom-singer","title":"CHRIS FARREN - Doom Singer","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ff0000;\" mce-data-marked=\"1\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLP - Limited Edition Transparent Bluish Vinyl. Includes download code.  \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAsk \u003cstrong\u003eChris Farren\u003c\/strong\u003e how he feels when he finishes an album and he won’t hesitate to respond with: “Miserable. Miserable. Miserable.”\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eAt least, that’s how it’s been over the years he’s been writing and recording solo. When the time came to make a record, Farren would be overtaken by an unparalleled anxiety, forcing him into the home studio he describes as “barely bigger than a closet,” where he agonized over the minute details of his work in progress. “Looking back on those records… I have no good memories of making them,” he admits. “It’s always been a lonely, doubt-ridden process.”\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eIt’s surprising to hear this, knowing Farren’s reputation as a prolific songwriter who made his name recording with \u003cstrong\u003eJeff Rosenstock\u003c\/strong\u003e in \u003cstrong\u003eAntarctigo Vespucci\u003c\/strong\u003e and before that, the Floridian punk band \u003cstrong\u003eFake Problems\u003c\/strong\u003e. In 2014, Farren started releasing music under his own name all while continuing his project alongside Rosenstock, and his first album, \u003cem\u003eLike a Gift From God or Whatever\u003c\/em\u003e endeared him to fans of the now-defunct Fake Problems and new listeners who had yet to experience the delight of a new Chris Farren song. \u003cem\u003eLike a Gift From God or Whatever\u003c\/em\u003e was followed by \u003cem\u003eCan’t Die\u003c\/em\u003e and Farren’s \u003cstrong\u003ePolyvinyl\u003c\/strong\u003e debut, \u003cem\u003eBorn Hot\u003c\/em\u003e. Last year, Farren wrote what he describes as a soundtrack to a spy film he invented that will never be committed to film. Inspired by Marvin Gaye’s soundtrack to Trouble Man, \u003cem\u003eDeath Don’t Wait\u003c\/em\u003e (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) was a creative exercise, one Farren completed in mere months that stands apart from the extensive, at times arduous, process of making a Chris Farren album.\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eAfter releasing \u003cem\u003eBorn Hot\u003c\/em\u003e in 2019, Farren knew he needed to make changes to the creative process, but he wasn’t yet sure how to. Enter \u003cstrong\u003eFrankie Impastato\u003c\/strong\u003e, drummer of \u003cstrong\u003eMacseal\u003c\/strong\u003e, who Farren met on tour and who became one of his dearest friends and confidants. He told Impastato about the misery, the barely-bigger-than-a-closet studio, the barren memory chest, and together they hatched a plan: they’d make Farren’s next album together. So, Farren got in touch with multi-instrumentalist\/producer, and \u003cstrong\u003eJay Som\u003c\/strong\u003e mastermind, \u003cstrong\u003eMelina Duterte\u003c\/strong\u003e (also, a Polyvinyl labelmate), who invited him by her studio where she’s collaborated with a steady stream of notable artists since first opening it in 2020. That’s where \u003cem\u003eDoom Singer\u003c\/em\u003e, his new full-length album due out August 4th, would be made.\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e“Looking back, I feel bad, because Melina brought me in to show me her space and was describing the gear to me and I was totally checked out,” Farren says. “I mean, the space is amazing, she’s super talented, but I told her: ‘I don’t care about any of this stuff. I just want to make a record with you and have fun. I want to make a record and have a good time.’”\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eCollaboration not only untethered Farren from his misery (fun was had) but also his overbearing need to control every aspect of the creative process. While on previous albums like 2019’s \u003cem\u003eBorn Hot\u003c\/em\u003e or 2016’s \u003cem\u003eCan’t Die\u003c\/em\u003e Farren might’ve spent hours on end tweaking a single canned drumbeat, \u003cstrong\u003eImpastato\u003c\/strong\u003e’s live drums offer a spontaneity that breathed new dimensionality into the Chris Farren project. He wanted this new effort to be “bombastic,” to sound like it could fill the immense negative space of an arena. “I wanted to open these songs up, make them less frenetic, and not feel the pressure to cram every moment,” he says. You hear that impulse on lead single “\u003cem\u003eCosmic Leash\u003c\/em\u003e,” which opens with a wall of sound that careens to a halt, as Farren delivers his interlude over the slight strumming of a guitar. That sense of reprieve lasts only a moment, before the enormous chorus shreds through the silence as Farren wails: “Change your heart\/ Wait your turn.”\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThe choruses on \u003cem\u003eDoom Singer\u003c\/em\u003e are all like this, huge, cathartic, catchy as hell, and inspired by what Farren describes as the “sixties-tinged girl group vibe, not retro, but playful” employed by Belle and Sebastian. “\u003cem\u003eFirst Place\u003c\/em\u003e” is a shining example, a song Farren describes as being about worrying you might grow apart from your partner and, “Not being able to cum because of Lexapro.” It’s hard to describe the single as anything but “jaunty,” the buoyancy of Farren’s delivery belying any sense of disquiet humming beneath its surface.\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eFarren says \u003cem\u003eDoom Singer\u003c\/em\u003e communicates an “optimistic nihilism,” and that lyrically, he’s trying to embrace nuances inspired by films like TÁR and I’m Thinking of Ending Things. “In these movies, the truth of the narrative isn’t handed to you, and it’s not easy to figure out where your sympathies should lie,” he says. Against certainty, \u003cem\u003eDoom Singer\u003c\/em\u003e opens with a confession. “I don’t remember how to do this,” Farren croons on “\u003cem\u003eBluish\u003c\/em\u003e,” admitting to feeling codependent in his marriage, worried he is too much to manage, that his neuroses might disrupt a delicate domestic balance. It was the first song he wrote for the album and the one that determined its narrative course. We’re made to believe aging makes you wiser, but as Farren has grown into the prodigious songwriter you hear on \u003cem\u003eDoom Singer\u003c\/em\u003e, he’s only grown less certain. “I’m constantly processing the way I feel about things, and I didn’t want any of these songs to sound sure of themselves, or to communicate any clear message,” he says.\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eCiting My Bloody Valentine, TV on the Radio, and Camera Obscura as clear influences, Farren says he can’t listen to much music until it’s time to make a new record, but when it’s time, he submerges himself in music that moves him. “I wrote between fifty and eighty songs for this album,” he says. The final cut is as genuine, empathetic, and of course, funny, as Farren is, and though he claims nihilistic tendencies, it’s the dogged optimism that endures. On “\u003cem\u003eAll We Ever\u003c\/em\u003e,” Farren compiles a list of things he wants (to stop paying rent, to love the government, to get drunk with friends) that accumulate into a three-minute reminder that no life is ever pristine, that there will always be wants unfulfilled, and that that’s okay.\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e“There will be struggle in everything. I’ll always be fighting with myself, and I need to find a certain peace with that,” he says, but on \u003cem\u003eDoom Singer\u003c\/em\u003e, Farren rejects closure, and he’s still seeking that sense of peace. Maybe we all are, whether we’re bold enough to sing about it or not.  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Polyvinyl","offers":[{"title":"LP - Transparent Bluish Vinyl [DATE TBC]","offer_id":46728280146265,"sku":"SDZ-06704","price":29.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0588\/3455\/0945\/files\/Chris_Farren_-_Doom_Singer_-_LP_Transparent_Bluish_Vinyl.jpg?v=1684251143","url":"https:\/\/spindizzyrecords.com\/products\/chris-farren-doom-singer","provider":"Spindizzy Dublin","version":"1.0","type":"link"}