TEMPLES share shimmering new single ‘Afterlife’

Temples
Credit: Molly Daniel

Temples have shared their shimmering new single, “Afterlife,” available now at all DSPs and streaming services. An elegant collision of soulful grooves, futuristic synth, and spellbinding guitar tones produced by labelmate Sean Ono Lennon and mixed by GRAMMY® Award-winner Dave Fridmann (The Flaming Lips, Mercury Rev, MGMT), “Afterlife” heralds the British psychedelic rock quartet’s long-awaited new album, Exotico, arriving everywhere via ATO Records on Friday, April 14.

“As we were putting the tracklist together we envisioned a jet or spaceship arriving on the island and then some sort of journey across this imagined place,” says Temples’ Thomas Walmsley. “By the second half of the record we’re moving into twilight, and ‘Afterlife’ is definitely one of the evening tracks.”

“‘Afterlife’ reflects on long distance relationships and how love and isolation often can find themselves next to one another,” says Temples’ lead singer/guitarist James Bagshaw. “You might feel lonely but you’re never alone. Seeing a light in the distance gives you the hope to know you’ll meet again.”

Check out the video for ‘Afterlife’ – BELOW:

Temples’ fourth studio album and first full-length recording since 2019’s acclaimed Hot Motion, Exotico also include such ecstatic new songs as “Cicada” and the stratospheric first single, “Gamma Rays,” the latter joined by an official music video, directed by filmmaker Molly Daniel (Nilüfer Yanya), and streaming now at YouTube.

Recently praised by Shindig! for sounding “like Temples, but Temples with a newfound confidence,” Exotico marks the band’s most far-reaching collection thus far, a 16-track panoramic musical travelogue set beyond the horizon on an impossibly utopic island where every song serves as a different stop along the atoll, from beaches with azure blue waters to forest canopies enveloped in rare birdsong. Recorded in studios in London, Brighton, and Worcestershire, songs like “Afterlife” and “Oval Stones” see Temples – with additional multi-instrumental and vocal accompaniment from Lennon as well as extra vocals from Charlotte Kemp Muhl (The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger) – painting visionary new vistas with cascading melodic waterfalls, contemplative lyrical exploration, and an imaginative creative wanderlust unlike anything previously heard in the band’s already ambitious body of work.

“This record is essentially something we made for ourselves to find joy in at the time we were making it,” says James Bagshaw. “There are songs to dance to, songs to reflect with, and through that we ended up delving into every aspect of our musical vocabulary.”

Temples – who recently completed a sold-out run of small UK club shows to road-test the new album – will celebrate the arrival of Exotico with a sweeping international live schedule. North American dates will be announced soon. For complete details, please visit www.templestheband.com/live.

Temples is: James Bagshaw (guitar, vocals) Thomas Walmsley (bass guitar, backing vocals), Adam Smith (keyboards, rhythm guitar, backing vocals), and Rens Ottink (drums and percussion).

TEMPLES EXOTICO

Tracklist:

Liquid Air

Gamma Rays

Exotico

Sultry Air

Cicada

Oval Stones

Slow Days

Crystal Hall

Head In The Clouds

Giallo

Inner Space

Meet Your Maker

Time Is A Light

Fading Actor

Afterlife

Movements Of Time

 

Xsnoize Author
Mark Millar is the founder of XS Noize and looks after the daily running of the website as well as hosting interviews for the weekly XS Noize Podcast. Mark's favourite album is Achtung Baby by U2.

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