Re: Cool band alert

You Brooklyites may well know about this already, but I'm currently listening to the debut album by Tenant From Zero, AKA singer/songwriter Paul Darrah. The one-sheet says "in the tradition of pop classicists Bryan Ferry, David Sylvian, Everything But the Girl, and the Blue Nile," and while I don't hear much of Sylvian's artiness, I think that's a pretty accurate description. I'd add China Crisis, Prefab Sprout and even Scott Walker in there, too. That whole wing of (mostly) UK new wave and synth pop obsessed with Burt Bacharach and Jimmy Webb.

The album's out in January, but here's a taste from a digital EP that came out a few years ago.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/16/2020 12:27PM by Michael Toland.

All of those descriptors sit in my wheelhouse, so I may look into this [if I remember to]. Thanks!

Former TP subscriber [81, 82, 83, 84]

[postpunkmonk.com]
For further rumination on the Fresh New Sound of Yesterday®

Sophisti-pop? Much of the music Destroyer's made over the past decade feels like a darker and colder take on that sensibility.

My first Destroyer record was This Night, which to my ears was a strange take on glam rock, so I've always thought of his work as springing from that well. But I barely listened to his later work, and didn't hear his last album at all, so I'll take your word for it.

He's kept changing his sound, and the glam influence gave way after a few albums. I think KAPUTT is his masterpiece. KEN might be the iciest sounding synth-pop album I've ever heard.

I looked up Tenant From Zero on Spotify and saw an ep from 2017. The first song is titled "Grant McLennan," so that's a promising start! Does he have a new full-length album?

Yes! It's called Flight, and comes out in late January.

Good pitch, I will definitely take a listen.

I'm listening to the 2017 ep...I'm hearing TONS of David Sylvian influence, not just in the vocal delivery, but in the music itself. The music reminds me a bit of No-Man as well. I like it!

I’m really digging the teaser track from the new album. It really builds on the direction of the 2017 EP and raises it up to a whole new level...

Tenant From Zero - “The End Away”

Wow...the effect of the band camp rabbit hole. I clicked on the link posted by 801, then clicked on the ‘sophistipop’ tag.... then kept clicking.
Before I knew it, 49 minutes passed in what felt like a nanosecond.

If you dig prefab sprout, you should really check out the album ‘pond life’ by the band treatment. I just discovered it....sometime in the past 49 minutes.

Man, the opening of “Grant McLennan” cops the Prefabs’ “Cars And Girls”...maybe a little too much.

TOTALLY.
It has to be a conscious Prefab Sprout homage, which is weird since it's about the Go-Betweens.

This is smooth. So smooth. Perhaps too smooth?