Last year when we chatted with Montreal’s Suuns, they mentioned a fifth album that was in the works before the pandemic further broke our broken world. Instead, they took some time, released their great hodgepodge EP FICTION, and return today with the news of said delayed album. The now-trio has announced the follow-up to 2018’s Felt; it’s called The Witness and its lead single is titled “Witness Protection.”
In a statement, guitarist Joseph Yarmush revealed, “It was a conscious decision to make the album sound like one song. We wanted to calm down a bit, even during the mixing process: our notes were simply ‘you have to settle down.’ I couldn’t technically explain what I meant by that, but the songs needed to settle down. We were basically trying to hold back all the bombastic tendencies and make things sound very subtle.”
This latest single finds the group advancing past droning post-punk or entrancing Krautrock. Whereas the songs on FICTION were more like mantras or spells, “Witness Protection” has the group’s signature intensity or veiled mystery, while also acting as a visual narrative and call to arms. “Cause now is the time to testify / Awake from this dream / Wipe the dust from your eyes,” singer Ben Shemie coos. Later, the track opens up with chime shimmers and bongo hits, blurring the sense that one’s waking up from sleep or falling back into a dream.
“Witness Protection” comes with an unnerving, but visually captivating video directed by Antoine Dasseville. Watch it below.
