Baltimore duo Ed Schrader’s Music Beat have announced their fourth album Nightclub Daydreaming for release on March 25 through Carpark.
They started writing an album of “sunny disco bangers” in late 2019 and further developed the songs on tour in early 2020 when they were playing with drummer Kevin O’Meara. Sadly, O’Meara passed away in October of 2020; an even that undeniably tinted the way the songs have ended up. Ed Schrader says of Nightclub Daydreaming:
“The fun thing about this record is that it’s all at once informed by our more recent lush productions with Dan Deacon, yet spartan and boiled-down, exuding a coldness wrapped in ecstasy, following our time honored trend of never giving people what they expect, but hopefully what they want.”
ESMB have shared two tracks from the forthcoming album. The first, “This Thirst”, is an anxious surf rock jaunt. The way the bass repeatedly climbs amidst the deluge of guitar and drums suggests an itching to escape, a feeling that is also accentuated by Schrader’s vocals, which become more fraught and frenetic as the song continues – his lyrics as vivid and mystifying as ever (“So I trickled down on a radium nightcrawl / Little in the morning they left of me.”)
On the other side we have the patient “Berliner”. A twinkling sail through a slow-motion dancefloor where everyone seems slightly brain dead, “Berliner” is creepy, campy, immersive and downright addictive.
Listen to both songs below or find them on streaming platforms.
Ed Schrader’s Music Beat’s new album Nightclub Daydreaming comes out on March 25 through Carpark (pre-order/save). You can find the band on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.
