GEMS are set to release their debut full-length album, Kill the One You Love, in just a few weeks on October 30. Today, the duo are excited to share new song “w/o u,” a dreamy, dramatic song with haunting and emotive harmonies. Premiered originally on The Line of Best Fit, they write, “incredible songwriting” and deem it a Song of the Day.

Currently on tour with Autre Ne Veut, GEMS craft evocative shadow pop that tangles with existential longing and human truths. The LA-based duo of Lindsay Pitts and Clifford John Usher, GEMS inject a sense of hope into their debut album, as they embrace pop’s form and structure while reaching for something deeper in the shadowland of the soul.
As the Examiner recently wrote of the debut album, “you’d be hard pressed to pick just one favorite. They might have previously drawn comparisons to Beach House, the xx and London Grammar but GEMS will certainly make their own mark.” NPR called their new work “more nuanced, exacting and intricate than anything else they’ve done,” while Entertainment Weekly deemed it a “debut album to get excited about this fall.” Stereogum drew comparisons to Phantogram, Sleigh Bells and Purity Ring, but noted they planted “a flag in distinct territory of their own, a winsome mishmash of ‘90s pop/alt-rock/R&B sounds.” Kill the One You Love has a stylistic restraint that, though stark, remains flush with emotion. It is an album of hurt, longing, and the beauty found in that space between. It’s music for the heartbroken but hopeful.
Kill the One You Love arrives October 30 on Carpark Records, with pre-orders available via iTunes and Carpark Records.
Oct 13 – Seattle, WA – Barboza *
Oct 16 – Denver, CO – Lost Lake *
Oct 18 – Chicago, IL – Lincoln Hall *
Oct 20 – Toronto, ON – The Hoxton *
Oct 21 – Philadelphia, PA – Boot & Saddle *
Oct 22 – Boston, MA – Middle East *
Oct 23 – Washington, DC – U Street Music Hall *
Oct 26 – New York, NY – Bowery Ballroom *
Oct 27 – Brooklyn, NY – Max’s Cellar #
* with Autre Ne Veut
# with dd elle