Ahead of his new album Death Jokes (his first in six years!), Amen Dunes has shared the project’s second single. “Boys,” which is presumably for the boys, begins with scrappy guitar, rubbery bass, and Damon McMahon (Mr. Dunes himself) admitting that it “Takes a long time to know that...” Hi hats slither into the fray, ducking and dodging around those aforementioned bass hits. Digitized vocals sort of sound like children, and this cacophony of sound gives the track a chaotic feel that always hints toward coalescing but instead lives on the edge of this chaos. A good song.
The track was first written by McMahon in 2015—before the release of his last album, Freedom. He penned it while touring in Italy, and it apparently began as a pop-punk song before morphing into whatever beautiful little mess it is now. “‘Boys’ is another interstitial character portrait, this time about outcasts, ‘bad kids,’ and seeing things from their side: ‘Everything you’ve done, it’s been done to you too.’” For the boys, indeed?
Check out the video for “Boys” below, and pre-order Death Jokes—which arrives May 10 via Sub Pop—here.
