For a certain subset of music fan, there’s nothing quite as good as feeling bad. Downbeat, despondent pop music can wield a weight and potency that cuts through the feel-good platitudes and let’s-party exhortations of so much of the popular landscape. Into the traffickers of hook-filled sadness comes Eyelids, a band that seems to have injected the DNA of Big Star straight into its veins and funneled it through the vibe of 1980s Athens indie guitar jangle. Featuring members of Robert Pollard’s Boston Spaceships, Decemberists, The Minus 5 and The Jicks, the new track makes good on the promise of the group’s earlier single “Seagulls Into Submission” with an even gloomier sound.
The video for ”Forget About Tomorrow” off debut album 854 (out now on limited edition vinyl and CD, and a special cassette version coming out March 3) conjures up a dark, abstract vibe perfectly befitting a song that sounds like the musical equivalent of a lonely rainy day. With vocals combining plaintive falsetto and yearning tenor, it hits that sweet spot between bouncy and morose. Watch it now, before the video itself starts gently crying.