I still can’t feel it when I’m shaking to the core,
You know you level me with your eyes
I still can’t feel you pour sugar in the wound
Emerging from beneath the floorboards of Cincinnati’s underground music scene, Louse is a band that is garnering a reputation for authentically conjuring the spirit of ’80s post-punk, gothic rock, dream pop, and alternative rock. Their acclaimed 2024 album, Passions Like Tar, captures this old-school spirit perfectly, channeling the melodic elegance of The Chameleons and the searing urgency of mid-80s Killing Joke, threaded seamlessly with the touching pop sensibilities reminiscent of French coldwave stalwarts Asylum Party. It is a record that unfolds as a refined interplay of brooding atmosphere and lush melody, each song meticulously shaped and alive with haunting beauty.
Yet, the band’s new single, Sugar In The Wound, while brimming with bittersweet romance, diverges from the album’s weighty gloom, introducing surreal imagery that wavers precariously between dreams and devastation. Teeth fall, planes plummet, and love is agonizingly sweet—an affection that simultaneously wounds and soothes, delivered with aching detachment. This track, initially alien amidst the LP’s brooding mood, blossoms into a finely balanced piece: brief, bittersweet, and brilliantly out of step with its siblings.
Louse’s lineup: Sam Souders (vocals, guitars), Danny Lovell (bass), Connor Simpson (guitars), Max Enslen (keys, vocals, percussion), and Bradley Kennedy (drums), carefully choreographs an emotional ballet of reverb-laden hooks and synth-washed elegance. There’s intentionality in their contrast, shaping a tracklist that pivots from somber to sharply focused pop.
Matt Stalf’s video evokes the vintage charisma of late 80s MTV, complete with curious Jell-o dinners, roses, and wood-paneled rooms, dreamily navigating the uncanny spaces between surrealism and nostalgia. This visual counterpart reinforces Louse’s embrace of the past without becoming entombed within it, a mirror of memory’s imperfect edges.
Watch the video for “Sugar in the Wound” below:
Born mere weeks after the final mix of Passions Like Tar dried like asphalt, “Sugar in the Wound” trades that record’s reverb‑soaked solemnity for a brisk, lovestruck spark that only revealed its purpose through layering and rehearsal. If this pivot is a signpost, Louse’s horizon points toward punchier pop contours sliced through with the same ink‑black urgency. Listen to Sugar In The Wound below and order the single here.
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