Following several weeks’ worth of pre-releases (and no small amount of drama to get us there), GANG PARADE, the Artists Formerly Known as POP and Soon also SiS, have dropped the title track from their Barely Last album:

So where do we stand now?

I had contemplated doing a review of the album, now that the whole thing is online ahead of Tuesday’s release, and you could probably still convince me, but GANG PARADE mostly exists in a weird place anymore, sometimes getting very ambitious in the way they blend sounds and styles together, and other times sounding not all that different from what “normal” — what does that word even mean anymore? — idols would do.

Last week was a good example of GANG PARADE at their best; this song, which reminded me of the summer’s “WE ARE the IDOL” as far as tone and pace and stuff, is a lot closer to the version of the group that people badly want to be doing bold post-pop. I’m not trying to say that it’s bad, or that you should re-evaluate your life’s choices if you dig it. It’s mostly a thing where I think the expectations should now live somewhere other than Carrying Pla2me’s Legacy. It’s been more than a year since “pretty pretty good,” after all, and almost a year since the huge swerve that was “Happy Lucky Kirakira Lucky,” and now they’re in yet another different place for the most part.

So what would be the point of a review? There are no secrets, only me and many many other people scratching our heads.

And that’s the most words I’ve probably ever written about a single track released on Soundcloud!

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