Atlanta-based new wave/post-punk band Picture One the third and final single Winter’s Kiss, ahead of the release of their new album ‘Across The Depths of Seven Lakes,’ which is coming out this Friday (April 3rd) via Deanwell Global Music (Bandcamp pre-order). Winter’s Kiss is an 80’s-inspired new wave dance song about the energy that frontman Thomas Barnwell IV often experiences as we move into winter from fall. He wanted it to be a catchy song with a simple sentiment; the feeling of falling in love with art, life, and the creativity that we often experience as it starts to get colder and we hole up for the season. Listen to Winter’s Kiss via YouTube below.
Ahead of its release, Picture One has shared two other singles from the album, the synth-driven lead single Cycle of Belief and Love Spell, whose lyrics are a metaphor for wanting to do something proactive when you feel like things are out of your control… eerily prescient, considering the situation we’re all facing.
Self-produced by Barnwell, the motifs on Picture One’s new album navigate transcendence, resolve, magic, and creativity, as well as exploring the sometimes stormy waters of love and loss. The music itself breaks through the often dark backdrop of the lyrical content, with a dance-y and self-aware 80’s synth-pop vibe accentuated by chilly post-punk soundscapes. Throughout the record, Barnwell fuses bright neon-soaked new wave accents and splashes each cosmic arch with a power-pop kick.
‘Across The Depths of Seven Lakes’ is crisp, cinematic, and surprisingly accessible and poppy, given his previous sonic propensity of leaning into darker instrumental coldwave territory. Barnwell electrifies with hook-laden analog synth melodies and an equally-incisive deep vocal sound, which draws on his predecessors’ influences while maintaining a unique approach. This is an album that is aware of the mercurial nature of personal tragedy, which can simultaneously appear both as dark impassable chasms, and as small puddles that can be easily splashed away. These songs invite us to explore and question this dichotomy at every turn without denying either the pain of everyday tragedies nor the miracle of the very human ability to overcome… maybe this is the exact album that we all need right now?!
