PLASTIC BARRICADES – new album out
- Posted on 03-12-2023
PLASTIC BARRICADES – WE STAYED INDOORS
“We Stayed Indoors”: hopeful songs in a hopeless world
London indie rock band Plastic Barricades has released the new studio album “We Stayed Indoors” on the 30th of November. The band’s third full-length record takes on the complex subjects of hope, mental health, doubts, living in the moment, courage, perception change, regrets from the past and worries about the future.
Often described as “hopeful songs in a hopeless world”, Plastic Barricades’ new tracks dive deeper into the zeitgeist, searching for glimmers of optimism and trying to reassemble the pieces of the fractured world we find ourselves in today. “We Stayed Indoors” was written and recorded as a reaction to the pandemic, when millions of people were left to their own devices, locked at home and reflecting on their lives.
Songwriting on the 10-track album has been greatly influenced by Seattle alt rock icons Death Cab for Cutie, and the title of the record is a homage to their 2001 song “We Laugh Indoors”.
The new album comes accompanied by a collection of quirky and unique visuals. The “one-take” music video for “Counting Fireworks,” created by the band’s long-time art director Elina Pasok won several awards in the Best Music Video category at film festivals this year, including London Global Short Film Festival, Rome Music Video Awards, International Sound Future Awards and Europe Music Video Awards.
“For the Brave” video, filmed together with London-based artist Olly Holovchenko, explores stop-motion technique in a unique setting, while “Lucid in the Fall”, “Tallest Trees” and “Second-hand Dreams” illustrate mesmerizing advancements in neural networks and text-to-image algorithms.
The singles have gained glowing reviews from music blogs, airplay on hundreds of stations worldwide and indie radio chart placements in the UK, USA, Canada, Japan, Germany, Portugal, Spain, France, Australia and Brazil.
The new album was recorded in collaboration with Sheffield-based drummer Chris Barber and Berlin-based singer Aellie Coto, as well as singer-songwriters Luke Joyce (Harsh Winters from Edinburgh) and John Sibley (Victory Kicks from London). Tom Hill (ex-Modern Rituals; Muttering) worked his magic on the mixes at the Bookhouse Studios and long-time collaborator Andy “Hippie” Baldwin (Blur, Oasis, Interpol) sprinkled the sonic dust of mastering at Metropolis Studios.
Plastic Barricades is a faithful moniker of London singer-songwriter Dan Kert and his ever-changing troupe of collaborators. “We Stayed Indoors” album joins 2017 “Mechanics of Life” and 2020 “Self-Theories” in the band’s catalogue.