The Murlocs – “Francesca” [Video]

The Murlocs have announced their fifth studio album, Bittersweet Demons, to be released June 25, 2021 via ATO and Flightless Records!

The album’s first single “Francesca” was written as a rip-roaring celebration of the rejuvenated life of frontman Ambrose Kenny-Smith’s mother. Ambrose says of the track…

“The song is about my mother and how she had been lost for love since the separation from my father when I was 10. In the last year and a half or so she’s found love again. This has changed her spirit immensely for the better. You can really see the pop in her step as this enormous weight has been lifted off her shoulders. It’s probably the most positive, feel-good song we’ve ever done. It’s also the closest we’ve ever come to having an 80’s phase.”

The Murlocs recorded at Button Pushers Studio in Melbourne, Australia with producer Tim Dunn, dreaming up a prismatic sound that pinballs from sunshine-pop to blues-punk to wide-eyed psychedelia. Naming John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band and Harry Nilsson’s Lennon-produced Pussy Cats among their key reference points, the band adorned their songs with many unexpected details: woozy Wurlitzer melodies, Brian May-esque guitar harmonies, and playful atmospheric elements like the whoosh of summer rain, caught by a microphone dragged into the street mid-storm.

What emerges from these 11 new songs is a beautifully complex body of work, one that shines a light on the fragilities of human nature while inducing the glorious head rush that accompanies any Murlocs outing.

You can pre-order the record at ATO HERE.

You can pre-order the record at Flightless HERE.