Early praise for Certainty Waves:
“sense of immediacy can be heard on ‘Forum’ with its trumpet bleats, Long’s bright melodies and Logan Kroeber’s romping percussion.” – Rolling Stone
“Good news: They’re back!…The layered track [‘Forum’] leaps, twitching with energy. It has a grungy edge that leans away from some of their earlier, more folkier tunes.” – Stereogum
“’Forum’ combines musical elements familiar to the work of The Dodos—intricate looping drum patterns, clattering, manic guitars, whiplash-inducing time changes—with new instrumentation, like the song’s shimmering string section present underneath.” – Paste
“Lead single ‘Forum’ evokes the rambling, clattering chaos of their early singles, with rowdy percussion and bursts of trumpet underscoring Long’s nimble vocals.” – Consequence of Sound
“‘Forum’ is galvanising and thrilling, showing no indication that The Dodos have lost a single step in the ten years since their breakthrough.” – The 405
“[‘Center of’] is a catchy dose of indie-folk-pop with that distinctive Dodos twist.” – Brooklyn Vegan
The Dodos – guitarist Meric Long and percussionist Logan Kroeber – release their seventh studio album Certainty Waves today via Polyvinyl Record Co. The Dodos celebrated the 10 year anniversary of their breakout sophomore record Visiter in 2018, and Certainty Waves – whichLong calls the band’s “midlife crisis record” – finds The Dodos going back to that album’s roots, embracing the unlimited possibilities of a time when there were no preconceptions of what the band should sound like. The duo had to forget everything they knew about what it meant to be the Dodos — and quit worrying about the ‘right’ acoustic guitar to drum ratio — and what began to emerge from the band’s rehearsals felt new and different, yet somehow still fundamentally “Dodos.” And so, Certainty Waves was born. Stream the album on DSPs
HERE and purchase it
HERE.
LISTEN/WATCH:
Following the release of Individ in 2015, The Dodos decided to take a breather. Kroeber went back to work, while Long stepped away from music after the death of his father and birth of his first child. For Long, this break did not last, and he returned in 2018 with his synth-based debut solo project FAN, inspired by synths his father had left him. Simultaneously, he continued writing songs for The Dodos, but had hit a wall. “I was a little bit lost in terms of which direction the record should go. We had a handful of recordings, nuggets, and song potentials, but they weren’t songs yet, and months had passed without any real progress. I was kind of debating whether to drop the kitchen sink, simplify things, or just leave them be.”
To celebrate one decade of Visiter, The Dodos began to prepare for a hometown show in San Francisco where they’d perform the album in its entirety. While getting reacquainted with the album and listening to it for the first time in eight years, Long had an epiphany. “It completely surprised me how much electric guitar is on that record,” reveals Long. “The narrative had always been we were just acoustic guitar and drums.” This ostensibly simple observation was pivotal in unlocking a new approach to the material that would become Certainty Waves.
The title Certainty Waves reflects the idea that what once seemed so certain will likely prove not to be in the future. That it was only a wave passing by. “Certainty Waves is our midlife crisis record,” says Long. “Who we thought we were, how mistaken we were, how an interference in the trajectory can flip your understanding of what came before.”
Album art
