Poliça are back with their haunting and meditative new album When We Stay Alive dropping January 31st via Memphis Industries. This album flourished from a fall. There is a whole before and after story on this album. Half was written before front woman Channy Leaneagh fell from her roof, busting up her spine. The rest came after.
The accident left her immobile for months. When events like this happen to us, they can leave a mark on everything we do, including the art we make. Leaneagh decided that this mark wasn’t going to be a stain, that this mark would be a stepping stone creative progress and insight. A mark that tracks growth.
She states:
I felt there were many things I could look at and say, ‘This happened to me but I’m okay now. It’s not happening anymore and I got the care I needed for it. Now it’s time to rewrite the story I tell about myself and to myself.’
The album as a whole maintains smooth, lullaby-like vocals over the drips and clicks of perfectly placed synth and a rolling digital vibe. It seems graceful and free, like everything that lives underwater. The sound is effortlessly rolling with the waves.
Track four, Feel Life, glides without tripping. It matches your breathing and wrestles down anxiety. Forget Me Now is the most chill way to confront a toxic relationship before Valentine’s Day hits. Every song is steady which makes When We Stay Alive the right album to help you collect yourself and become aware of your thoughts. Face your past head-on.