Warhaus by Warhaus

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2017 | Alternative | Pop | Rock

Warhaus, the solo side project of Maarten Devoldere (songwriter and core member of acclaimed indie act Balthazar), have announced their new self-titled album. Warhaus follows 2016's critically celebrated We Fucked A Flame Into Being, a lush, moody confessional album whose title comes from a line in D.H. Lawrence's classic novel Lady Chatterley's Lover. Written largely on the road -- as well as on a retreat in Kyrgyzstan with no one but a local shepherd for company -- Maarten's creative fires burned very bright indeed in the run-up to the new album. "I was sitting on a mountain of songs," he avers. Recorded at home in Belgium, among the many stand-out tracks Warhaus offers are a softly lit, marimba-laden woozy meditation on adultery "Love's A Stranger"; "Control," Maarten's story about "the beauty of man surrendering to a woman" set against a dark backdrop of voluptuous strings; and "Everybody" a dirt bag confessional ballad complete with a sing-along chorus: "When their girls are gone, men start watching porn, drink too much and piss in the sink. It's about that," wryly explains Devoldere. The silky "No Such High" ditches worldly cynicism for an ode to how love can overpower and transcend all temptation. "It's the first time I've embraced those feelings and written a love song without a bittersweet aftertaste," asserts Maarten. As in all the songs, the interplay between Devoldere's smoldering vocals and the velvety tones of Warhaus' backing vocalist, Sylvie Kreusch (who is also his girlfriend) lends the music an intense intimacy and their contrasting personalities feed into the sensual dynamic. "We've very different people," says Devoldere. "She's this natural force which I don't understand at all and I'm the guy who thinks everything through. It's an interesting combination."

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Play It Again Sam

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alternative rock pop