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Ages and Ages have been teasing a new album for several months now, but this week, the Portland choral-pop band finally made it official.
Me You They We, Age and Ages' fourth album and the followup to 2016's Something to Ruin, will be out this April. The announcement also comes with the release of a new song, "Just My Luck," a dreamy, piano powered track about grasping for meaning.
Since their breakthrough hit "Divisionary," Ages and Ages have established themselves as purveyors of tightly-crafted, anthemic pop that delivers self-help guides in the form of three-minute singalongs. ("No Nostalgia," from 2011's All Right You Restless, even wound up on President Obama's 2012 campaign playlist.) But "Just My Luck"—along with the three previously released singles that the band has now confirmed will be on the next album—implies a sleepier era of Ages and Ages.
"Just My Luck" features a plodding piano, ethereal xylophone and an eight-bit synth interlude. Perry's breezy falsetto sounds almost lethargic. "It's it just my luck?/The easier the answer the more it tears me up," he sings on the bouncy bridge and chorus. "If there's anyone that I should avoid/I'm going to try."
In a press release, frontman Tim Perry explained that the lyrics are about making things more complicated than they have to be. "I find myself tripping through this mass of cliches, searching for something less disappointing and predictable," Perry says. "It's the easy answers that elude me."
That's surprising coming from a band whose choruses typically contain simple but effective bits of wisdom. Still, the song isn't a downer, and neither are the other three singles off Me You They We. So far, it seems like we can still count on Ages and Ages for pristine, harmonize-through-the-heartbreak pop.
Me You They We is out Friday, April 5 on Partisan Records. Ages and Ages' next hometown show is Friday, April 36 at Doug Fir.
