Cola, announce their new album, Cost of Living Adjustment, will arrive on May 8th via Fire Talk Records. Ahead of the LP’s release, the Montreal trio, including Tim Darcy, Ben Stidworthy, and Evan Cartwright, have shared its lead single/video, “Hedgesitting.” C.O.L.A. is sort of a self-titled album. It’s an acronym for Cost of Living Adjustment.

Cola, as a band, says Darcy is defined by its “tasteful minimalism.” A deep appreciation for making music that is romantic, subtle, and deceptively intense. C.O.L.A., however, is the band’s most maximalist work to date. In practice, this maximalism means that a song like “Hedgesitting,” has both live drums and a sample drum loop. “Hedgesitting”— presented alongside a stunning video helmed by Kristina Pedersen — is a gorgeous, lush song. It’s like a deconstructed, chopped & screwed b-side from the Cure’s Disintegration. It’s also a little indebted to Sarah Records. “When you were young,” Darcy sings at the song’s start, “you came to make it.”

C.O.L.A., like everything written by the band, is inherently collaborative. The band writes everything separately, then comes together and works in the studio. Look again to “Hedgesetting,” to see this in action, which started out with chords that Darcy had sent, then the band expanded it together, with Stidworthy remixing it right before heading to the studio. This division of labor works intuitively. It is a part of the band’s DNA to say, take an arrangement Stidworthy wrote, and then have Darcy and Cartwright build upon it.

One of the goals with Cost of Living Adjustment was to have the melody guide the lyrics. This is a distinct shift from the sprechgesang that has been an anchor for many of Darcy’s earlier records. Here, the vocal melodies are on the same level as all of the other melodies on the record. But the lyrics are no less poetic, no less precise than anything Darcy has written before (“It’s not,” he jokes, “like we’re making a Cocteau Twins song).”

Cola
Cost of Living Adjustment
Tracklist
Fire Talk Records

1. Forced Position
2. Hedgesitting
3. Fainting Spells
4. Haveluck Country
5. Satre-torial
6. Polished Knives
7. Much of a Muchness
8. Third Double
9. Conflagration Mindset
10. Favoured Over The Ride
11. Skywriter’s Sigh

Pre-Order Cost of Living Adjustment by Cola HERE