Six years since their last studio album, I Break Horses have broken their silence with the announcement of their third LP Warnings, due for release 8 May via Bella Union. To mark the release, I Break Horses have shared a visually arresting self-made video for the majestic lead track ‘Death Engine’. Watch below.
Heartstopping and enveloping, ‘Death Engine’ is draped in dreamy mellotrons, haunting loops and analogue synths, while Lindén’s exquisite vocals sigh with the echoes of Liz Frazer or Sinead O’Connor her lyrics crackling with immersive dramatic tensions. It’s about the troubled minds of today’s youth in our harsh contemporary times, Maria Lindén says: “The song, which was written in connection to a close friend’s suicide attempt, also reflects upon the increasing reports that suicide is the second leading cause of death among Generation Z, with this age group having more mental health issues than any other generation.”
If I Break Horses’ third album holds you in its grip like a great film, it’s no coincidence. Faced with making the follow-up to 2014’s plush Chiaroscuro, Horses’ Maria Lindén decided to take the time to make something different, with an emphasis on instrumental, cinematic music.
That album is Warnings, an intimate and sublimely expansive return that, as its recording suggests, sets its own pace with the intuitive power of a much-loved movie. And, as its title suggests, “It’s not a political album,” says Lindén, “though it relates to the alarmist times we live in. Each song is a subtle warning of something not being quite right.”
As Lindén notes, the process of making Warnings involved different kinds of dramas. “It has been some time in the making. About five years, involving several studios, collaborations that didn’t work out, a crashed hard drive with about two years of work, writing new material again instead of trying to repair it. New studio recordings, erasing everything, then recording most of the album myself at home…”
For Lindén, Warnings is a remarkable re-routing of a journey begun when I Break Horses’ debut album, Hearts (2011), luxurious grandeur and pulsing sense of art-pop life. With the electro-tangents of 2014’s Chiaroscuro, Lindén forged a new, more ambitious voice with total confidence. Along the way, I Break Horses toured with M83 and Sigur Rós.
Pre-Order “Warnings” LP
https://smarturl.it/ibh_warnings
Track List
01. Turn
02. Silence
03. I a r m
04. I’ll Be The Death of You
05. d e n l i l l a p s e a v l y c k a
06. The Propget
07. Neon Lights
08. I Live At Night
09. Baby You Have Traelled For Miles Without Love In Your Eyes
10. Death Engine
11. a b s o l u t a m o l l p u n k t e n
12. Depression Tourist
