© Photo credit: Will Matsuda
Flasher release new single & video “I’m Better”
Today, Flasher - the duo of guitarist Taylor Mulitz and drummer Emma Baker - release a new single/video, “I’m Better,” off their forthcoming album, Love Is Yours, out June 17th via Domino. Freedom is a major thread throughout the album. While lead single “Sideways” evokes the liminal stillness-in-motion feeling of a long-distance drive, and “Love Is Yours” is about the roller-coaster highs and lows of a long-term relationship, “I’m Better” is more explicit and playful. It revels in guilt-free trash-talk, “bye-bitch!” energies, and the bliss of feeling a toxic relationship recede into the rearview. The video is made of Super 8 footage of the band.
The band elaborates: “‘I’m Better’ is about leaving a toxic relationship and finding joy, freedom, and self-assurance on the other side. We filmed the video in central Oregon during a brief escape from pandemic isolation in 2021. The footage captures the expansive feeling that comes with exploring a new place or path forward.”
Following their acclaimed 2018 debut, Constant Image, Love is Yours steps up the ambition and reaches for the horizon. Baker and Mulitz shared vocal duties, tweaked tempos, structures, and dynamics. They toyed with genre, melody, and texture. It’s ablaze with mood, melody, and carefully threaded hooks, finding the band foregrounding the pop sensibilities that had always been present in their previous releases. It retains the attitude that was fundamental to the band’s DIY roots, but cuts loose a touch of the angst. Though the songs process disillusionment and loss, the music evokes warmth and optimism. It is their best record and also their most generous.
