With angular echoes of Interpol-esque lines feeding into the palpitatingly anticipation-rife instrumental arrangement, the prelude and opening verse in Rooftop Screamers‘ latest single, Dead in the Water, throws you into the depth of the earworm headfirst before the subsequent verses veer from Placebo reminiscence to exuding the fervid electricity found within the Manic Street Preacher tracks that know exactly how to melodically ignite the soul.
It is a significant sonic shift from the sound Rooftop Screamers used to gain our attention earlier this year. They’ve left the dreaminess and romanticism of Another Life behind the anthemic 90s Britpop adrenaline, but you’ll still be enveloped by the scintillating synths as they add colour to the guitar lines which may as well have been riffed by James Dean Bradfield himself.
The track featuring Rob Daiker is an impossible-to-ignore attestation to the cultivated gravitas of the Portland-hailing award-winning singer-songwriter who alchemically metamorphosed nihilism into euphoria for superlative power pop catharsis.
Dead in the Water was officially released on December 15; stream it on Spotify.
Review by Amelia Vandergast