New Zealand’s the Naked And Famous broke onto our radar around 2010, sounding a whole lot like Passion Pit. At one point, I even asked Michael Angelakos in a live interview at the MFA if he was getting royalties from their single “Young Blood.” But then a funny thing happened — TNAF’s debut record Passive Me Aggressive You had a bunch of brilliantly crafted electronic-pop songs on it, in particular the standouts “Punching In A Dream” and “Girls Like You,” taking the sound Passion Pit created a few years prior but fleshing it out a bit, giving it all a bit more bass and a more deliberate pacing. The Auckland band was more than we first gave them credit for.
Now they’re back with a new track, “Hearts Like Ours,” the first cut from second album In Rolling Waves, which drops in mid-September. It has a bit of “Young Blood” DNA in it, but also feels like a late-’80s slow-burning arena-pop hit. Once again, the vocals take center stage, but there’s also a great guitar riff buried down there under all those synths.
First impression: pretty good, and instantly catchy. But they posted it like 40 minutes ago so we still have to hear it a billion more times.
In the meantime, pre-order In Rolling Waves on iTunes, and heads up: The Naked And Famous hit the House of Blues on October 12. More details on that as we get them.