You may remember Michael Nau as the frontman for mid-aughts twee-folk outfit Page France, which splintered off into the more psychedelic Cotton Jones near the end of the decade. Yet for the past 10 years he’s also re-established himself as a solo artist with a fairly prolific discography exploring elements of soul, chamber-pop, country, and beyond on a series of records tethered together by Nau’s penchant for a warmly anachronistic sound. The latest of these releases is titled Popfly and it’ll see him reuniting with his prior bands’ label Suicide Squeeze for the first time since 2017’s Some Twist LP.
Following the release of the record’s indie-folk title track, today he returns with “New Slack,” a single featuring a fuller instrumental sound despite its equally laid-back vibe. That sense of depth can be chalked up to the presence of longtime collaborator Benny Yurco and his son Oliver, who each add new dimensions to the track with their respective instruments. “The earliest memory I have of this song is playing it in the tailgate of Benny’s Volvo—Benny on bass and Oliver playing sax,” Nau recalls. “Benny would send me that phone memo a lot over the next couple years. It only made sense to record it for this album.”
Check out the results below, and pre-order Popfly here ahead of its October 23 release.
