The second single from the forthcoming third album by Pop Filter, ‘Fighting Spirit’ is out now via Osborne Again / Spunk Records / Virgin Music Australia.
A slice of poignant, ramshackle balladry, the new single is a classic Pop Filter anthem that perfectly encapsulates the ethos of the band. As Jordan Thompson of Pop Filter explained, “As every song on the album was, 'Fighting Spirit' was recorded at our ramshackle studio which Lachlan had built from recycled wood in the back of his furniture making workshop. It was a little wooden box with carpeted walls, just enough space for the whole band to set up in, and no ventilation. We were getting together as often as we could in the evenings after work to get ideas down and record."
"A few weeks after the basics of 'Fighting Spirit' had been recorded Curtis laid down his guitar at one of these after-work sessions. Listening back days later we realised it was a little sloppy and slightly out of tune, and planned to re-record it later. However, after recording the piano melodies on an old upright which I had just moved between houses, and which was rapidly falling out of tune, everything just cohered. All of the questionable tuning issues became part of the atmosphere of the song and the loose, imperfect feeling supported the sentiments of the lyrics. The words deal with ideas about 'winners' and 'losers' and explore the equal and opposite relationship there."
'CONO' is set for release later in the year is the third album from Pop Filter, a band of friends whose strong bonds stretch across multiple cities and who’s musical lineage name checks Snowy Band, Cool Sounds, and The Ocean Party to name a few. Coming three years after the band’s last offering, 2020's 'Donkey Gully Road', the band returned with an album recorded over a few months in mid-2022.
Where the first two albums were recorded on weekends away in condensed periods of time, 'CONO' was the product of weekly meet-ups, of whoever could make it along to their makeshift studio in an industrial estate in Coburg North (also where the album takes its name). The band squeezed together in the tiny room and pieced together the tracks over hot chips. The result is an album that is unashamedly honest and full of off-the-cuff charm and low-key pop brilliance. Lyrically the album picks up where 'Donkey Gully Road' left off, exploring place, isolation, purpose, and lack thereof.
Pop Filter isn't a band pretending to be anything more or less than what they are. The songs are reflective and sincere but manage to never feel self-indulgent. Musically Pop Filter are more open than they have ever been, varying levels of fidelity and musical stylings culminate on an album that still feels cohesive and sequenced. A low-key voice memo on a mobile phone sits alongside a snappy garage pop strummer before the instrumentation opens up into sparse country-tinged balladry. After enduring the longest period of time that this prolific group of friends has probably ever gone without releasing new material, you‘ve waited long enough for this one.
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