New Music: Battery Operated Orchestra – Alligator

With their Sea Views Soft Rains LP out next month, Battery Operated Orchestra have shared a deceptively cosy for Alligator.

The third single from what is the band’s eighth studio album, Alligator looks at love and then under its surface, teasing out their differences and resultant dangers when the two are not the same. As if to amplify that theme within the song, this story of toxic love is relayed over a sophisticated and decidedly relaxed arrangement. How can something that seems so perfect be anything but innocent?

The lyrics do let us know the song’s true nature, but with vocals that are so sweepingly romantic and a melody that seems made for lovers, but as in life, you might not see what is coming your way until it’s too late. It’s was inspired by a picture, something that forms the basis of the album.

“[Sea Views Soft Rains is] shaped by twelve found photographs set against the backdrop of a small English seaside town,” says the duo. “The album unfolds as a series of interconnected stories of revenge, love, loss and redemption, all refracted through rain-streaked windows, empty promenades and abandoned ballrooms.”

“It’s an album about memory and myth, the stories we inherit and the ones we rewrite, and finding redemption in places where the tide never quite settles. It unfolds as a series of interconnected stories of revenge, love, loss and redemption, all refracted through rain-streaked windows, empty promenades, and abandoned ballrooms.”

The duo operates to their own plan and their own vision of everything being part of the music, especially how their music is presented to the listener. So much so that they have a handmade CD edition that comes in a box that contains fifteen photos. “The album artwork is an integral part of our music,” they state, “which is why we take so much care with our packaging.”

Sea Views Soft Rains is out on the 4th of August. As well as CD format, the digital iteration of the album can be pre-ordered on Bandcamp. The band has an album launch party livestream on the 3rd of August – for details of that and much more, follow Battery Operated Orchestra on their Facebook or Instagram socials.