Culture Crash: Exploring The Indie Band & Album “Red Hearse”

In 2014, the band Bleachers released its first single, I Wanna Get Better, followed by its album, Strange Desire, and I fell in love with both the song and the album.  The band was the passion project of musician Jack Antonoff, who rose to fame as a member of the band FUN.

In the ensuing few years, Bleachers has released another album, Gone Now, but perhaps even more notably, Antonoff has produced music for a number of artists, including Lorde, St. Vincent, and Taylor Swift. Having his hands in so many projects makes tracking Antonoff’s work a bit of a challenge, which is why it was a great surprise when, on a random August afternoon, I learned on Twitter that a new album he worked on from a new band he and a couple of friends began was out on Spotify. The band, and the album, is called Red Hearse, and it sees Antonoff partner up with fellow musicians Sam Dew and Sounwave, each of whom are stars in their own right.

Sounwave has worked on music with Kendrick Lamar, while Sam Dew has worked with Zayne and Rihanna.

The album Red Hearse is a quick-hit, electro-pop, indie album that I am really digging. Dew’s falsetto gives the album a really lived-in feeling, and in just eight songs, Red Hearse manages to take listeners through plenty of fun beats and catchy choruses.

Sometimes, the anticipation can be the best part of something. Other times, things can catch you off guard and give you something you didn’t know you wanted. Red Hearse, something of a surprise project from three music industry veterans, was the perfect surprise for the dog days of summer, and promises to be a nice companion well into the fall.

Red Hearse’s self-titled debut album is out now.