First Listen: Chris Staples, "Holy Moly"

May 31, 2019 | by Jocelyn Hoppa

You might be of a certain age to remember the indie band Twothirtyeight, in which Chris Staples was the frontman. The band has been defunct since 2003, but Staples has gone on to make quiet, introspective records under his own name, Holy Moly being his latest and is due to release on June 28 via Barsuk.

Holy Moly is quite literally a garage bedtime record — it was recorded in Staples' garage during 2018, a time when he'd quit drinking, but stayed up working between 10pm and 4am. Once he was no longer dulling his senses with booze, he was back in touch with his creative side and evenings become full of thoughts and questions. He said, "I would work on it for a few months and walk away... I would pick the best songs of each two month period and eventually I had a record."

What resulted are song dealing in some depressing subject matter, but ultimately it sides with the belief that human life is full of possibility, a counter to all the holy-moly disbelief that has seeped into our daily culture like a scourge.

For a taste, here's the official video for the title track:

For a little more, I'll point you to my favorite track from the album, the final track "Running Out of Time." You can pre-order Holy Moly here.