LUMP – the product of London singer-songwriter Laura Marling and Mike Lindsay of the band Tunng – have shared a new track from their upcoming sophomore album ‘Animal’ (out July 30th via Partisan/Chrysalis). “We Cannot Resist” is available everywhere now, and is accompanied by a music video that features a rare sighting of the project’s titular LUMP creature. Listen/watch below:
Lindsay says of the song, “It wants to be this massive pop track, but it’s been twisted. I like that when the chorus comes in you’re like ‘Wow!’ It’s this huge pop chorus, but then it becomes really creepy with the whispered ‘We cannot resist’”. Marling elaborates, “this is another one about hedonism. But it was tricky because it’s such American imagery. I remember we had to stop and start and redo quite a lot of the lyrical takes because saying things like ‘Down to burn rubber’ are quite awkward to say in an English accent.”
Ahead of release, the duo have shared ‘Animal’ title track as well as “Climb Every Wall,” which have earned praise from NPR, the New York Times, Pitchfork, Fader + more.
Half cute, half dark and creepy, the songs Marling and Lindsay create as LUMP are unlike anything from either of their respective other projects. Marling’s lyrics are spontaneous, immediate, and playful (she drew heavily on her interest in psychoanalysis). Meanwhile Lindsay creates an accessible electronic palette that borders on psychedelic. ‘Animal’ was recorded at Lindsay’s home studio in Margate, Kent and primarily constructed around his Eventide H949 Harmonizer, the same pitch-shifter David Bowie used on 'Low.'
“LUMP is so the repository for so many things that I’ve had in my mind and just don’t fit anywhere in that way,” Marling explains. “They don’t have to totally make narrative sense, but weirdly they end up making narrative sense in some way.” The project became something liberating and distinct; she adds: “it became a very different thing about escaping a persona that has become a burden to me in some way. It was like putting on a superhero costume.” Lindsay says, “There’s a little bit of a theme of hedonism on the album, of desires running wild. We created LUMP as a sort of persona and an idea and a creature. Through LUMP we find our inner animal, and through that animal we travel into a parallel universe.”
