Canadian post-punk band Ought are back with another new single, “Desire,” taken from their forthcoming LP, Room Inside The World.
Room Inside The World, the band’s third studio album, is out on Feb. 16 via Merge Records. Following their latest singles “Disgraced In America” and “These 3 Things,” “Desire” is a slow-burning epic that bassist Ben Stidworthy describes as “Sade meets Bruce Springsteen.”
The song features a 70-piece vocal choir and it reveals a much more intimate, tender side of the band that they’ve only revealed in brief glimpses. Frontman Tim Darcy sings with such unwavering conviction amid waves of immense musical tension, “I’m trying to be cool regardless of what I know to be true,” and his powerful vocal delivery would convert even the band’s strongest skeptics or unbelievers.
Ought are often like a stubborn onion, with many harsh, complex layers of pent-up thoughts and feelings, but in rare moments on a track like “Desire,” they finally uncover their true, vulnerable core, and it’s all the more magical and reinvigorating.
After hearing the band’s first two singles, Paste highlighted Room Inside The World in our recent feature, “The 10 Albums We’re Most Excited About in February.”
Listen to “Desire” below and preorder Room Inside The World here.