Stream: The Fling, ‘Nightshade’
Kevin Bronson on
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In the reflective song “27” on the new album from the Fling, singer Dustin Lovelis waxes about smiling in the face of impending doom. The Long Beach quintet is, after all, familiar with confronting adversity. The band’s sophomore effort, “Mean Something” (being self-released Aug. 22), marks an impressive bounce-back from a brief and arduous fling with Dangerbird Records, which released its debut in 2011. “Mean Something” represents a sonic leap for the five-piece (Dustin and Graham Lovelis, Justin Ivey, Justin Roeland and Joel Bond), whose early songs seesawed between harmony-rich folk-rock and Fab Four-influenced pop. Here, the Fling trades in retro-tinged psych-pop songs whose rough edges speak to their renewed intensity and whose hooks reflect the pop chops they always had. The album was recorded to tape with producer Matt Wignall (Cold War Kids, et al) at Sound City in Van Nuys and at Tackyland (Wignall’s garage). Richard Swift even did the cover art. Whatever detours the Fling navigated in the past, “Mean Something” means they are back on track.
||| Stream: “Nightshade” and “Paranoia”
||| Live: The Fling perform Aug. 5 at the Bootleg Bar as part of Kiev’s residency.
||| Previously: “Dogpile;” interview from 2010.
[…] on vinyl via Porch Party Records. It’s the third solo album from Lovelis, once a principal in the Fling, following 2015’s “Dimensions” and 2017’s “Been Hit […]