Iceage are gearing up to release their fourth album, Beyondless, on May 4th. This week, Iceage shared the album’s second single “Pain Killer”, featuring Sky Ferreira (the first guest vocalist to ever be featured on an Iceage song). After the release of “Catch It” last month, it’s the band’s first new single since 2013’s Plowing Into The Field of Love. The album was produced by the band with Nis Bysted, and recorded all-analog by Mattias Glavå at Kungsten Studios in Göteborg, Sweden, and mixed by Randall Dunn at Avast Studios in Seattle. The album was played entirely by Iceage with additional performances by Nils Gröndhal (violin), horns by Kasper Tranberg (trumpet), Lars Greve (saxophones) and Morten Jessen (trombone).
In conjunction with the album release, Iceage have announced March residencies in New York and Los Angeles, with dates in Japan in April; this in addition to previously announced European and North American tours in May and June.
Above its rock underpinnings, “Painkiller” is bold and brassy; literally the first thing you hear are the horns and the upbeat cacophony of sound is almost at a contrast with Elias Bender Rønnenfelt and Ferreira’s laid-back vocals. About Ferreira, in Pitchfork’s review of the song, they say her, “… backup vocals the very embodiment of nonchalant cool, Iceage frontman [Rønnenfelt] oozes thirst as he casts his lust as a form of addiction. Concerning the music, “the song is almost too much—its splashy horns hit like something out of a ’60s spy film—but this strain of rock ’n’ roll has never been about subtlety. It’s about power moves.”
Listen to “Pain Killer” below:
Check out the album’s artwork and tracklist below:
TRACKLIST:
01 “Hurrah”
02 “Pain Killer”
03 “Under The Sun”
04 “The Day The Music Dies”
05 “Plead The Fifth”
06 “Catch It”
07 “Thieves Like Us”
08 “Take It All”
09 “Showtime”
10 “Beyondless”
Beyondless is out 5/4 via Matador Records.