Dream-pop outfit Gem Club will release their sophomore album, In Roses, on January 28th, 2014 via Hardly Art. The follow-up to 2011’s Breakers sees the band leaving their bedroom post, recording out of John Vanderslice’s Tiny Telephone studio in San Francisco and collaborating with conductor Minna Choi of The Magik*Magik Orchestra.
Aside from a different studio setting, the album also marks a change in theme for the Somerville, Massachusetts trio.”Whereas Breakers was more about the body and inward-gazing, the new album is about me looking out on relationships I’ve had or wish I’ve had,” lead songwriter Christopher Barnes explained in a statement.
In Roses’ first single “Polly” — a song about Barnes’ relationship with his late aunt — is seven minutes of mournful majesty. Built masterfully (and patiently) with stirring vocals and lush-but-pained strings, its somber touch doesn’t relent. Rather, it drifts on and on, disappearing and reappearing, like a ghost that’s lost its way. Listen in below.
Below, watch a trailer for In Roses: