Desire are finally returning with their first new album in over a decade. Entitled Escape, it will be released on May 3rd via Italians Do It Better. As a preview, the Palm Springs-via-Montreal synth-pop duo have shared the clubby new single “Telling Me Lies.”
The band wrote and recorded Escape in Los Angeles and Palm Springs, inspired by the ominous, vivid aura of 1970s giallo films (think Dario Argento’s masterpieces Suspiria and Deep Red). Almost as if they were soundtracking a campy slasher of their own, the band’s Megan Louise and Johnny Jewel used an array of electronic instruments on Escape, including a Minikorg, Jupiter 8, 909, Mellotron, Simmons Rhythm Modules, String Machine, a D-50, and Fender Rhodes. Implementing girl group melodies, children’s choirs, and Louise’s trilingual lyrics, Escape is a project that only Desire could make.
“Telling Me Lies” feels like attending a disco hosted by a sinister witch coven. Its four-on-the-floor beat is embellished with windchimes and church bells that add to the tune’s foreboding atmosphere. “Time after time/ Losing my mind,” Louise chants in the chorus, threatening to lure you into her world of black magic. Listen to “Telling Me Lies” below.
Escape follows Desire’s 2009 self-titled debut. Back in 2020, Jewel — who founded Italians Do It Better — released a new installment in the label’s After Dark compilation series called After Dark 3, which featured tracks from Desire, Chromatics, Glass Candy, and more.
Escape Artwork:
Escape Tracklist:
01. Black Latex
02. Telling Me Lies
03. Liquid Dreams
04. Love Is a Crime (feat. Mirage)
05. Zeros
06. Dark Age
07. Haenim (feat. Ether)
08. Ghosts
09. Escape
10. The Young and the Restless
11. Days & Nights
12. L’Amulette De Vie
13. Friends & Enemies
