There’s something happening on the west coast. Whether it’s in the air, the water, or the drugs, a pool of talent has formed around the notion that you can have your pop and eat it too, with brainy, prog-influenced weird-beards like Bend Sinister and arcane psycho-confectioners Mother Mother demonstrating that musical complexity can still be hummable. Commercial, even.
Throw the Zolas into the picture and dammit – you might even call it a scene! Not that it’s ever been a concern to long-term musical partners Zach Gray and Tom Dobrzanski, who established their gifts for intricate songcraft three years ago under the name Lotus Child.
Since then, the duo has finessed its formula into something even busier yet no less direct, filling their new album Tic Toc Tic with hairpin turns, schizoid tonal shifts, multiple parts, and a sort of cabaret strut.
Miraculously, between New Pornographers vet Howard Redekopp’s unfinicky production and the clarity of Gray and Dobrzanski’s vision, Tic Toc Tic works like a charm. Complex without being alienating, it aims equally and with dead-eyed precision for the head, heart, and groin.
Guitarist-vocalist Gray hits on the twin poles that define Tic Toc Tic when he reveals an equal passion for the visceral Scandinavian dream pop of Mew, whose influence is obvious, and the classic music hall rag of the Kinks, whose influence is anything but. Not on first listen, anyway, though the presence of Ray Davies is felt in Gray’s lyrics. Particularly when he turns his attention to the mundane, like the character in “You’re Too Cool” who wrestles with his vulnerability at Vancouver’s hipster HQ the Biltmore. Or the confessional “Body Ash”, which documents a relationship on the ropes. The directness of its sentiment echoes what Gray describes as Davies’ “populism”.
“The first words in ‘Body Ash’ are ‘my balls’,” he laughs. “Literally. I’m not hiding behind any metaphors.” Soundwise, Gray says he was aiming for “self-conscious Jeff Buckley”, which also goes some way towards describing a lot of the music on Tic Toc Tic.
Boxing the listener with their virtuosity right off the top, opener “You’re Too Cool” is six minutes of fortified waltz-time piano dissolving into what Gray characterizes as an “anti-chorus”. “The Great Collapse” is swaggering and deceptively sunny power-pop for apocalyptic future scenarios. “Marlaina Kamikaze” bounces between big band stickwork from drummer Ali Siadat, braying trumpet, and a decadent stride-piano breakdown.
Meanwhile, “You Better Watch Out” has Gray anguishing over a cute girl on a bus while cascading piano arpeggios and Aidan Knight’s hyperactive bass push his suffering to operatic levels of high drama. “Queen of Relax” is featherlite prog, and “Cab Driver” somehow contrives to be both the most straightforward number on Tic Toc Tic, and the most demanding. “It’s the most fun to play,” says Dobrzanski, who caps the song with a libidinous boogie-woogie throwdown sizzling enough to give “Honky Cat” era Elton a case of pianist envy. “It’s a rock-out,” he continues. “I like the athleticism involved in parts of it. It’s actually work.”
If “Cab Driver” finds the Zolas in an almost conventional mood, “I’ve Got Leeches” and album closer “Pyramid Scheme” both explore the fringes of the songwriting team’s expanding universe. Gray describes the first as “baroque” and “Bowie-esque”, while the latter, he admits perhaps a little freely, “is the track where we don’t care if anyone ever listens to it.” As such, it includes what Gray calls “a vaguely Maori, haunted house, war chant section.” Deadpans Dobrzanski, “That moment might come across as a bit out there.”
In truth, Tic Toc Tic is a little out there from bar one to its closing outburst of unbound inspiration. Perhaps it has something to do with the duo’s seasoned friendship – they met as choirboys in Grade 9 – or a working relationship that begins with Gray broadstroking ideas and passing them along to Dobrzanski, his classical musically inclined “details guy”.
Whatever alchemical thing lies beneath the sparkling progressive pop of Tic Toc Tic, the partnership has made its great leap forward. It’s our job to catch up. And we should consider it a pleasure.
Cold Moon
The Zolas Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
To rinse the brush and go again
But still I know I've got the stain
And maybe you do too.
I found the stomach to deny
The urge to look you up online
Don't want to creep on your profile
Maybe I'll see you on the cold moon
We'll meet again beneath the cold moon
Thin windows fill my room
With silver from the cold cold moon.
In the mirror here and there
I catch a flash of silverware
I shake my back to try to clear
The table set for two.
The Zolas's song Cold Moon is a melancholic reflection on a past relationship that is difficult to let go of. The opening lines, "The paint is dry, we've closed the vein/ To rinse the brush and go again/ But still I know I've got the stain/ And maybe you do too," set the tone for the song. The singer has tried to move on from the relationship, but the memories and emotions are still present, leaving an indelible "stain" on their life. The pain of knowing that the other person might be going through the same thing adds to the complexity of the situation.
The second verse adds another layer to the story. The singer confesses to the temptation of looking up their ex online, but doesn't want to come off as a "creep." This line is relatable to many people who have gone through breakups in the digital age, where it's easy to stalk an ex's social media profiles. The chorus brings hope and solace to the singer's predicament. They imagine running into their ex under the "cold moon," a poetic image that signifies renewal and clarity. The line "Thin windows fill my room/ With silver from the cold cold moon" evokes a sense of stillness and contemplation, emphasizing the introspective nature of the song.
In the final verse, the singer describes the physical space they inhabit, which is haunted by memories of the relationship. The "mirror here and there" reflects a "table set for two," a visual representation of the loneliness that comes from not having someone to share meals with. The song ends on a poignant note, with the singer trying to "clear the table" and move on from the past.
Line by Line Meaning
The paint is dry, we've closed the vein
The act is over, and there's no going back.
To rinse the brush and go again
To start again without forming an attachment to the previous work.
But still I know I've got the stain
Even though I've started again, there's a lingering impact.
And maybe you do too.
Implying that the impact is shared with someone else.
I found the stomach to deny
Having the courage to resist.
The urge to look you up online
Curiosity can be hard to overcome.
Don't want to creep on your profile
Not wanting to violate the other person's privacy.
But sometimes I still do.
Despite the desire not to, sometimes the curiosity wins.
Maybe I'll see you on the cold moon
Hoping to reconnect, perhaps in the future.
We'll meet again beneath the cold moon
Meeting again in another setting, maybe under a different circumstance.
Thin windows fill my room
The singer's room is chilly and perhaps lonely, and the setting is described in detail.
With silver from the cold cold moon.
The night still provides some beauty despite its darkness.
In the mirror here and there
The singer is looking at their reflection.
I catch a flash of silverware
A subtle reflection of the singer's surroundings.
I shake my back to try to clear
Trying to shake off or ignore the loneliness.
The table set for two.
A visual reminder of the loneliness, and perhaps the hope to bring someone to fill that other seat someday.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
MrSegrist
This is such a beautiful song. I love the rawness of the opening guitar amp tone. They could have done noise-reduction on that tube amp, but they left it in rather than diminish one iota of that reverb-drenched tone. And those lyrics...and melodic movement with those beautiful Ratatat-esque synths and beautiful drum programming. The hope, the yearning, the wishful thinking, and bittersweet hope that saturates every second of this song. Perfection. I've loved them since 2012 when I first heard "Cultured Man" (my all-time favorite song of the 2010's), but this song is becoming a CLOSE second. So good.
Carly Menta
the zolas are like my default music. when i hate every other song, i'm still in love with the zolas
a.d.r marie
Cant hate any of their songs. The zolas are love. The zolas are life. Nuff said.
MsPandaBee
I love each and every song.. this music makes me cry and smile at the same time
Fwivo
WARNING: If you listen to this superb piece of art even just one time, you will not be able to stop and it will become your life. (if you have good taste in music)
♫Amazing Music: Not Even Once♫
Nathan Christian
@Fwivo too true!
J B
Meh am not sure...
12maggie2
Normally I enjoy music on my own, but this is the type of home-grown, well-produced music one must share.
Lydia Majeau
On repeat for few days now man this song , this band, is addictive
Gabrielle K
this is good background music to realizing things are okay