Cola annouce new album ‘The Gloss’ + share ‘Pallor Tricks’

With roots in Montreal, the band Cola was formed by ex-Ought members Tim Darcy and Ben Stidworthy. Evan Cartwright, an in-demand session musician and collaborator in Toronto’s vibrant jazz/experimental scene with acts such as U.S. Girls and The Weather Station, joined after their first practice in 2019. 

In 2022, Cola released their debut LP ‘Deep In View’ on Fire Talk Records. Earning praise from outlets like Pitchfork, NPR, FADER, Stereogum, Uproxx, Paste, BrooklynVegan, Consequence, Clash, NME and Rolling Stone who named the band an Artist You Need To Know and called their debut “one of the year’s most thrilling rock statements,” the album was one of the year’s most acclaimed debuts.

The band have returned to announce their sophomore LP, an album called ‘The Gloss,’ that will be out via Fire Talk on June 14th. Along with the announcement, they are sharing a new single titled Pallor Tricks. Watch the official video for Pallor Tricks via YouTube below.

From their inception Cola have expanded on the d.i.y. ethic of the Dischord and SST eras, creating potent sounds from a minimal palette of drums/bass/guitar and lacing their songs with winsome one-liners and societal commentary. What’s another word for commentary? Gloss, apparently. Never basic, the lyrics reward repeated listening for deeper meanings. David Berman’s poetry-via-garage light pennings are an inspiration, as equally so are the lighter side of UK first-wave New Wave and the Dunedin sound. The results are in the pudding: at times sparse and poetic, at others a thrilling, hook-laden good time, as with the cheeky romantic sketch of a one-night stand that is so overflowing with innuendo-cum-journalism talk that it almost teeters over into self-parody. It’s an album bursting with energy and wit and ideas–filled to the margins. 

While the band’s singles since their last LP, ‘Keys Down If You Stay’ and last month’s Bitter Melon (both of which appear on their new LP) saw the band in a looser and more exploratory mode than their debut, Pallor Tricks ups the tempo, seeing the band at perhaps the most volatile point in their catalog to date, with nervous rhythms desperately chasing different shades of distortion in search of equilibrium.

Darcy says of the track: “The title Pallor Tricks is obviously a play on ‘parlor tricks.’ The lyrics feature imagery from film sets and such. I suppose I was thinking of the kind of self-consciousness that can arise when a camera is rolling. I’ve always been particularly affected by the performances I (rarely) see on so-called ‘reality tv.’ The type of performance where a person is compelled into a kind of ‘hyper-real’ state where they summon grotesque approximations of emotion that are exaggerated but not elevated, as they are in art. I’m sure there’s lots of compelling stuff that goes on in those programs and I don’t mean to cast aspersions, this idea of performance simply became a jumping off point when we were writing this one. The song also cycles to a more sincere open chorus, a kind of musical juxtaposition.

The video by Craig Scheihing is not only a brilliant piece of film, it also mirrors some of these themes by presenting an array of screens and refracted 16 MM dreamscapes alongside this kind of direct connection of Evan and his girlfriend.”

In addition to the band’s previously announced European tour dates that will take place in the spring. Full details can be found below. 

‘The Gloss’ track list

1. Tracing Hallmarks
2. Pulling Quotes
3. Pallor Tricks
4. Albatross
5. Down to Size
6. Keys Down If You Stay
7. Reprise
8. Nice Try
9. Bell Wheel
10. Bitter Melon

Tour Dates
05.08 – Hanover, DE @ Cafe Glocksee
05.09 – Rotterdam, NL @ Vessell 11
05.10 – Eindhoven, NL @ Altstadt
05.11 – Luxembourg @ Out of the Crowd Festival
05.13 – Ramsgate, UK @ Ramsgate Music Hall
05.14 – Birkenhead, UK @ Future Yard
05.15 – Cardiff, UK @ Clwb Ifor Bach
05.17 – London, UK @ The George Tavern
05.18 – London, UK @ The George Tavern
07.05 – Toronto, ON @ The Garrison
07.06 –  Cleveland, OH @ Mahall’s
07.07 – Detroit, MI @ Lager House
07.08 – Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle
07.11 – Nashville, TN @ Third Man Records
07.12 – Atlanta, GA @ 529
07.13 –  Asheville, NC @ Eulogy
07.15 –  Washington, DC @ Songbyrd +
07.16 –  Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s +
07.17 –  New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom +
07.18 – Troy, NY @ No Fun +
07.19 –  Boston, MA @ The Rockwell +
07.20 – Montreal, QC @ Theatre Fairmount +
10.10 – San Diego, CA @ Soda Bar *
10.11 – Los Angeles, CA @ Zebulon *
10.12 – San Francisco, CA @ Bottom of the Hill *
10.14 – Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios *
10.16 – Vancouver, BC @ Wise Hall 
10.17 – Seattle, WA @ Madame Lou’s *

+ = w/ Mhaol 
* = w/ Mind Shrine