I've been listening to the new Josh Rouse record a lot this week (he's one of my all-timers) so it likely put me in the perfect place for this new single from New Zealand trio alae to show up in my inbox this morning, but I'd have probably loved it without having the pump primed by Love in the Modern Age already.
Ringing guitars are one of my weaknesses and "Stone Cold" has a doozy that has echoes of The Sea & Cake (another all-timer) and then Alex Farrell-Davey's vocals come in and have the same timbre as Rouse. Both possess gentle voices that still have weight behind them and are perfect for pop love songs ("Stone Cold" is about love as an addiction).
The architecture of this song is great too in the way that the guitar line and a very subtle drum track get a full 20 seconds to establish the song before the vocals come in and then a tom and snare beat accompanies Farrell-Davey's first words. The bass line drops in around the 45 second mark and then all of this drops away for a moment around 1:06 at which point we reach the chorus AND THEN OHMYGOD THERE ARE HORNS. 1:19 is when my crush on this song becomes full-blown swooning. The trumpet line brings with it a more bouncing beat and the irrepressible sunshine at the heart of this song bursts out.
This is the best Josh Rouse song Josh Rouse hasn't written and it leaves me eager to hear more from Auckland's alae.
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