Dean Wareham reveals another taste of his forthcoming album, I Have Nothing to Say to the Mayor of L.A by way of “Cashing In.” The track is a winking manifesto which was written in reflection of a playful comment made to Wareham by the artist Richard Kern, which was adapted for the chorus: “I’m not selling out / I’m cashing in.”

I Have Nothing to Say to the Mayor of L.A. (out October 15 via Double Feature Records) is Wareham’s first singer/songwriter-style material in a long time, but it’s also some of the strongest of his career, which stretches back to the late 1980s, when his group Galaxie 500 changed the face of what we now know as indie rock. You can feel the lineage of that period on the album, particularly in Wareham’s inimitable vocals — “I feel like I really sang out more than I have in a while.”

The studio’s setting is reflected on the album which moves like an easy breeze, the reverbed guitars pulsing pleasantly in conversation throughout. But with the pandemic raging on while they had to safely put it all together, there’s tension and anxiety in there too. “We were all inundated in politics, all swimming in that,” Wareham remembers. Of course, if you want to talk politics, the mayor of Los Angeles is mentioned right there in the title of the album, which is itself the first line on today’s single “The Past Is Our Plaything.” Wareham knows people are going to ask him about that — what would he have to say to the mayor, if given the chance? “It’s gonna happen,” he shrugs. “But the answer is right there too — I have nothing to say.”

Photo Courtesy: Matt Fishbeck