HOMESHAKE – 'CD Wallet'
Dream-pop darling HOMESHAKE has unveiled details of his latest studio album and shared from it the eponymous lead single CD Wallet.
The Canadian king of lo-fi – real name Peter Sagar – is set to release CD Wallet, his sixth full-length LP on March 8th. On the nine-track record, HOMESHAKE evokes memories of his guitar-obsessed upbringing in his hometown of Edmonton, Canada and sees the usually experimental, synth-heavy artist settle on a more 90’s-tinged grunge sound. In his own words, the album was “made in a heavy, straightforward indie rock style to impress my childhood self”.
Lead single CD Wallet is an intriguing first glimpse at that stylistic shift. The squelching bass and synthetised drum beats of a typical HOMESHAKE track have lent way to raw, shoegazey guitars and the results are stark, downtempo and captivatingly nostalgic. There is a candid energy and angst in the track similar to that of Weezer or perhaps Slint at their gloomy best.
Accompanying the release of the single, is a suitably low-key music video created by Jim Larson and shot in Edmonton. In it Sagar wakes up in his childhood home filled with family portraits, before meandering around his snow-covered hometown, revisiting old hangouts and looking every bit like a prime Kurt Cobain plucking at a Jackson 7-string guitar.
This new musical foray is perhaps less surprising given Peter Sagar’s precocious fascination with guitar music (he apparently was particularly obsessed with Chop Suey by System of a Down, despite mishearing the lyrics for years!) but nonetheless marks an exciting new direction for HOMESHAKE.
To steal the words of the top Youtube comment on the new video: “I’m so here for this new era of HOMESHAKE”.
CD Wallet is due for release on March 8th on Sagar’s own label SHHOAMKEE.
Words by Elliot Houchell