M'Lou Elkins
Michael C. Hall, best known for playing a serial killer with morals on the hit Showtime series Dexter, along with bandmates keyboardist Matt Katz-Bohen, who has played with Blondie since 2008, and drummer Peter Yanowitz, a veteran of the Wallflowers and his own band, Morningwood, have shared the title track and video “Come of Age” off of their sophomore release of the same name that drops today on In De Goot Recordings.
NYC-bred eclectic trio Princess Goes’ (formerly Princess Goes to the Butterfly Museum) second full-length album, the 12-song Come of Age, is the follow-up to 2021’s full-length Thanks for Coming and 2020’s self-titled debut EP, and is perhaps their most accessible material to date. Recorded in the band’s clubhouse near Manhattan’s Union Square, their synth-heavy tracks are genre-bending and tinged throughout with Bowie-esque vibes that create irresistible, if not a bit unconventional, soundscapes ripe with a touch of glam and a sprinkle of new wave.
The band’s evolution on Come of Age is immediately apparent from the first listen.
“I think the original sounds that Matt and Peter first made came about because necessity was the mother of invention,” says Hall. “It’s what was in the studio when they first started making instrumental tracks, electronic drums and a lot of keyboards.”
Though onstage they are a synths-drums-vocals band, their latest effort finds finds guitar and bass more present and playing a bigger role than they did on their previous recordings.
“We really fully embraced not limiting ourselves,” says Yanowitz, “and we did embrace the guitar heavily–electric and acoustic–and a lot of bass.”
The single “Come of Age” is a follow-up to the album’s first released tracks, “Shimmer,” “Blur,” and “Jetpack.” Yanowitz, who accurately self-describes Princes Goes as “a weird band,” had this to say about the song:
“This beautiful track came out of Matt Katz Bohen’s incredible imagination. In Princess, we love the band Future Islands, and I think you can hear their influence in this tune. These are among my favorite lyrics Mike has written…too many lyrics to mention here, but one that sticks out to me is ‘Admit you wanna see me go down.’ I really love the sentiment and the way the line unfolds in the delivery. I believe Mike intended it one way, but I also think about that line in the bigger picture, how so many people seem to want others to fail, maybe even want us to fail, and the delivery is seasoned with just the right amount of attitude…like you can be a hater, but we don’t give a fk…deal with it. One nice touch is that we recorded that distortion live on Mike’s vocal. It wasn’t an effect added later…the distortion is married to the performance. For the production geeks…the pre-amp we used on Mike’s vocal was an Avalon 727. The original song all started with a discarded Yamaha synthesizer Matt found in the garbage on the street in Brooklyn.”
Check out the Princess Goes official visualizer for “Come of Age” below:
Come of Age – Tracklisting:
1. Offering
2. Let It Go
3. Blur
4. Come Of Age
5. Shimmer
6. Jetpack
7. Glasswing
8. Take Me Home
9. Beija
10. Saving Grace
11. Whatever Whispers
12. Floatin
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