Introduced on 2024’s Who Does the Music Love? LP, Outer World is the buzzing psychedelic duo of Dahlia Seed’s Tracy Wilson and her former Positive No bandmate Kenny Close, whose shared love of sci-fi and Western soundtracks from the 1960s informed this new, post-emo chapter in their musical careers. Today they return with their second album, Home, which sees the band (now a six-piece) drifting deeper into the narrative intrigue of such bygone genre films with their own soundtrack that blends the light psych-pop of a synth band like Stereolab with darker, noisier post-punk sensibilities.
The new record’s penultimate track “Pendula” speaks to the band’s creative lyricism, with Wilson noting that the eerie sounds of the song are intended to echo an uncomfortable chapter of Ian Fleming’s 007 franchise, which was quickly glossed over nearly 60 years ago. “The scene is set as James Bond apologizes to his new bride for not having gotten her a wedding gift yet,” Wilson shares, providing backstory for “Pendula.” “He doesn’t feel too badly about it because he believes they have all the time in the world together to make up for it. Tracy responds, ‘You have given me the best wedding present: A future.’ Only seconds later, she is shot and killed.
“It has been argued that of all the tragic characters—mostly women—in the James Bond franchise, the saddest of them all is Tracy,” Wilson continues. “She was James Bond’s wife, killed shortly after their picturesque wedding in the 1969 film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. My father was such a fan of the Bond books and films that it is this Tracy for whom I was named. ‘Pendula’ is intended to be a timeless love song and a theme for Tracy Bond: epic, romantic, and tragic all at once. At last, the iconic women of this spy universe have their own signature siren song.”
The spooky black-and-white visual the band is sharing for the track matches the song’s tone, while their distorted take on the popular sounds of the ’60s feels right in line with the alternate history they conjure in which James Bond is haunted by his past. Check out the clip—which was helmed by Close—below, and stream Home here via K Records and Courtesy Desk.
