Land of Talk today shared “Sitcom,” the silken third single off their forthcoming new album Performances, due out this Friday via Saddle Creek, alongside a video directed by Ana-Maria Espino Trudel. “A lot of my love of music is just from long car rides with my dad listening to Christopher Cross, Fine Young Cannibals, and Whitney Houston. He’s not a musician but I feel like I’m almost having a conversation with my dad through a lot of my records,” explains Lizzie Powell, the creative force behind Land of Talk. “Recently, I got into a really big Christopher Cross phase. On this song, I thought I could try to write like that. I was also watching a lot of Family Ties and older sitcoms. The keys part kind of evoked that classic TV intro from the ‘70s and ‘80s.”
Of the video, Espino Trudel explains, “I wanted ‘Sitcom’ to be a cross between a blasé ‘90s sitcom and Jeanne Dielman peeling carrots in the kitchen. Hailey Guzik crafted a custom sign meant to mimic an applause sign found on a live studio set – except the sign taunts, ‘figure it out,’ lyrics from the song itself. I wanted to tell a story of multiple alternate universes existing within the mundanity of life. We find Lizzie contained by the television, a force trapped in an ethereal world, while comedian Eve Parker Finley slowly spots clues of a world beyond (at other times blithely missing it). Meanwhile, Hanako Hoshimi-Caines’s cathartic and experimental movement brings to the surface the childhood tantrum simmering in us all.”
Performances, Powell’s fifth LP as Land of Talk, feels like a total reinvention: an unflinching statement from an artist who’s not afraid to say how they feel. Though it trades muscular guitar rock for understated piano, it’s still the most urgent, cathartic, and personal release of their career so far. “It’s the weirdest, mightiest little record I’ve made since I used to write music on my four-track when I was 14,” says Powell. “I needed to make a love letter to my teenage self by being more vulnerable and doing all the production myself.” Here, they doggedly value their own intuition over anything else to make their most rewarding album yet.
Performances is a defiant and resonant blow against expectations and outside pressure. It’s an LP showcasing an artist without constraints and allowing themself to be radically honest. “The album title is very literal,” says Powell. “I’m performing what’s in my brain but I’m tired of performing femininity for the music industry, femininity in my life, respectability, and vulnerability. I’m trying to grow out of these and break out of these roles in my life.” Powell’s fearlessness as a songwriter has already led to Land of Talk boasting an unmistakably essential discography but with this album, they find the perfect opportunity to give themself the grace to truly double down on their own vital sensibilities. They usher the songs every step of the way from demoing to producing, imbuing each track with immense care and unfiltered feeling.
Previous singles “Pwintiques” and “Your Beautiful Self” earned support from outlets including Billboard (Cool New Pop Songs), NPR Music (NMF playlist), FLOOD Magazine, UPROXX (Best New Indie), Stereogum, Brooklyn Vegan, Exclaim!, and more.
Performances is available for pre-order here, and Land of Talk will celebrate the album’s impending release with a Bandcamp listening party tomorrow, Wednesday, October 11th, at 6pm PST.