Certainty Waves, by The Dodos

Certainty Waves

by The Dodos

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Royal Fuse Can't deny the crazy time signature vibes of 'IF' and the amazing drum syncopation! Nice evolution of The Dodos' sound Favorite track: IF.

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1.	Forum 03:28 video	lyrics	buy track
what do I care whether you know my name memories rise and fall into random place could we turn it around? sure If it's feeling much more light I can't believe it, is this really happening? I can't believe it, is this really happening? I can't I can't I can't I can't could we be stuck? what if the other side fell on it's head feeling too heavy could we be stuck? Is this what you wanted for everyone? call it out no one's there to arrive tell me something what a waste of an ear call it out nobody's listening shut it out tired and broken ways of thinking keep it out of the storm no one's wishing you and I are the same
2.	IF 03:34	lyrics	buy track
Caught out of focus You and I never occurred Caught out of focus You and I never occured Slip caught in the rye, held you caught in the rye, felt you caught in the rye, thank you Even before I get to the end I've heard it before I know what happens Caught in another's trap I can 't keep on looking for the safe lift Wouldn't be caught dead without stairs I can't keep on ripping the same riff Even before I get to the end I've heard it before I know what happens
3.	Coughing 03:58	lyrics	buy track
Not like you to give a shit anyway Always coughing, always coughing My mind's made up and I say Call it off again One stays on the other gets away Let 'em get ahead One in two will One in two will At last I see you All along it was effortless, always effortless Not like you to give a shit anyway, always scoffing, always scoffing How could I ever ask you To be more than I need How could I ever expect you to be more than I am
4.	Center of 04:24	lyrics	buy track
Innocence, I tell you oftenly how to be and if I get to watch you grow up the way I did will you forgive somehow we thought things would go another way now I forget all of the things I tried to remember go on forget what it was you were yesterday find yourself not where you wanted but where you belong closing doors always seemed easier than trying to hang on and I forget what it was like Disappointing world You're not the center of the universe Disappointing world You're not the center of the universe my ghost come's back again the trouble is I don't know what it means and though I share my gift the trouble is I don't know what it is Disappointing world You're not the center of the universe Disappointing world You're not the center of the universe
5.	SW3 04:32 video	lyrics	buy track
what are you going after wanting to win always moving faster when moments are still are you fighting opinions turning you in are you waiting for laughter lost to the wind is that what you wish, honestly is that what you wish, honestly I was thinking of us back there lost in the hour was it turning corrupt did it, honestly So much counted on this when it started to slip didn't know who I was did you, honestly and I'm still looking back always reading the past like it's some sort of fact was it, honestly I was thinking too much all this talk turns to thought cut it out there it was always, honestly who are you gunning after trying to kill are you watching neighbor starting to spin are you out on the pasture or over the hill always turning a favor into a guilt is that what you think, honestly is that what you think, honestly It was an offer to be someone else I only wanted to be a version of something
6.	Excess 03:47	lyrics	buy track
Turning over Death is fast approaching dissonance is only temporary photograph test caught in a photograph's field was it a fake or a real only a moment live in a cycle's reel photograph what are you testing test All the colors, beware I thought I could be all those colors to you Turning over Death is fast approaching dissonance is only temporary
7.	Ono Fashion 03:34	lyrics	buy track
To the fold I return but it's not as it was instruments as they were but the sound's not the same looking out ahead the compromising looks like sedition out of the way cauterize it out of tradition God is so out of fashion God is so out of fashion didn't they tell you Born out of two voices
8.	Sort of 03:57	lyrics	buy track
Living in another person's fantasy Living in another person's fantasy and I get set, looking in another circus amounts to nothing recognize going nowhere you and I countless secrets innocence holding something reminisce I could wait for heaven or I could also hold you I could wait and try to emulate your ways it's never second nature I could wait and try to emulate your ways I'm always second to your nature Living in another person's fantasy
9.	Dial Tone 04:31	lyrics	buy track
focus on the intake voices feel out of place only difference in phase move past how to contain Until you have yours, I am Until you have yours, I am Just tell me when, I'll run to you Just tell me when, I'll run to you This is enough for now, is it enough for you Ha, No you're never ever gonna Ha, No you're never ever gonna No more listening today Noises drowning away No one left here to tell Gone are familiar way Until you have yours, I am Until you have yours, I am

about

To make Certainty Waves, their seventh album as The Dodos, guitarist Meric Long and percussionist Logan Kroeber had to forget everything they knew about what it meant to be The Dodos.

Like the duo's breakout sophomore album Visiter (which celebrates its 10-year anniversary in 2018), Certainty Waves finds The Dodos embracing the unlimited possibilities of a time when there were no preconceptions of what the band should sound like. Questions like whether the band needed to be more than just “acoustic guitar and drums,” and just what exactly the ratio should be of acoustic vs. electric guitar suddenly took a backseat to the realization that so much emphasis was mistakenly being put on form rather than spirit.

Perhaps not surprisingly, this epiphany occurred while the band was re-learning Visiter for a show in which they were to perform the record in its entirety.

Recalls Long: “At the time that show happened, 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."

But a funny thing happened when he sat down to listen to Visiter for the first time in eight years.

“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 Long and Kroeber would later put to tape in the studio.

“Rather than thinking about the end result or considering the reaction of the listener, I tried to give in to gut reactions, first impulses, however silly or untrue to form they may be,” says Long. “If it was exciting in any way, we pursued it without hesitancy or question.”

What began to emerge from the band’s rehearsals was a quasi post-punk sound that Long immediately gravitated toward. It felt new and different, yet somehow still fundamentally “Dodos.”

And so, Certainty Waves was born.

Speaking of the aforementioned spirit, album opener “Forum” has it in spades: a fanfare-esque synth intro, thumping drums, trumpet bursts and fist-pumping “Hey!”s -- not to mention a guitar line that wouldn’t be out of place snaking its way through a Strokes album.

Later, “SW3” employs different tactics to achieve its own frantic vitality, intertwining acoustic guitar and clicking drumsticks in a beautifully syncopated rhythm.

They’re the kind of songs that might not have existed had The Dodos immediately started work on a new record after finishing their previous one (2015’s Individ), as they were usually inclined to do. Instead, Long -- the band’s primary songwriter -- stepped away from music for a time after the birth of his first child, before returning in May with the debut album from his synth-based solo project FAN.

"Making the FAN record [Barton’s Den] was a bit of a crash course in recording, but it really opened up a lot of new possibilities for me in how I thought about making records since there were no guidelines,” says Long. “It's without question that Certainty Waves would be a completely different record, or perhaps would not have existed, had I not done Barton's Den.”

Long eagerly applied this newfound sense of freedom to his approach to The Dodos, and subverting one's own processes and identities quickly developed into a central theme during the creation of Certainty Waves. It’s also a sentiment reflected in the album’s title -- 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,” acknowledges Long. “Who we thought we were, how mistaken we were, how an interference in the trajectory can flip your understanding of what came before.”

credits

released October 12, 2018

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about

The Dodos San Francisco, California

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discography

Grizzly Peak

Nov 2021
The Atlantic

Oct 2019
The Surface

Mar 2019
Certainty Waves

Oct 2018
Individ

Jan 2015
Carrier

Aug 2013

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Barton's Den
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Meric's debut album as FAN, available May 4, 2018. The Dodos
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