The long-running So. Cal band Starflyer 59 delivers their latest single “Life In Bed” (Velvet Blue Music) on June 11th. It’s the first glimpse into their sixteenth studio full-length album Vanity, out sometime in August. While the Starflyer of the past was notable for its noisy wall of guitars and hushed vocals, “Life In Bed” is coated in lush chamber pop production, thanks in part to TW Walsh (Sufjan Stevens, Pedro the Lion). Frontman Jason Martin’s vocals, weathered by decades behind the mic, are centered in a startlingly intimate, personal, and confessional new focus that will surprise even the band’s longtime cult fanbase. 

“Life In Bed” is cinematic and melancholy in sound and feel, evoking Leonard Cohen’s eighties period, longtime Martin inspirations Joy Division and Echo and the Bunnymen, and fellow late-night contemporaries Lambchop. After decades of tireless workmanship, it’s simply stunning to hear Martin and company continue to surprise and startle with audacious new creative directions.