Chameleonic songwriter Josh Da Costa has released the first two songs on the tracklist to his debut solo statement, New Wave Graveyard, and you may notice that they’re fairly different: the driving album opener “Skygirl” sounds like it could’ve been made in collaboration with George Clanton or TV Girl, while the ensuing “Proving Me Right” is a bit more reverent for the post-punk era referenced in the album’s title. As Da Costa puts it, the 11-song collection is intended to be a tour through the artist’s career to date, including the various projects he’s fronted or otherwise played with (the latter category includes MGMT and Jessica Pratt). “Instead of trying to home in on one specific vibe or sound, I chose to sort of chameleon my way through my own taste and record collection and try out different approaches to songwriting,” he explains, “as if I were more than just one artist.”
The third facet of Da Costa’s musical personality lands today with “Cordelia,” a lightly fried hypnagogic pop track that sounds like it might have infiltrated the blog scene in the early 2010s. “‘Cordelia’ is a sweet song about a mysterious woman,” Da Costa shares of the Shakespeareanly titled cut. “Written as an homage to both a record label and my then-roommate who shared the same name, it spoke to the idea that there were secrets behind a closed door that was actually slightly open just a crack. It also touches upon a notion that some songs are psychic, and even though this song was written and recorded before I knew certain things, I now know them to be true—and I was right."
Check out the appropriately hazy visual for “Cordelia” below, and pre-order New Wave Graveyard ahead of its July 24 release via Stones Throw here.
