Tracklist
album info:
Verified yes
Discs1
GenreIndie
Rank−
Released2016-09-23
Record labelRough Trade Records
Charts
AddedOctober 1st, 2016
Last updatedJanuary 14th, 2017
AboutHeads Up is the third studio album by the American indie rock band Warpaint. It was released on September 23, 2016 on Rough Trade Records. Heads Up was produced by Warpaint and Jake Bercovici, who had previously worked with the band on their debut extended play, Exquisite Corpse (2008). The album was preceded by the single "New Song".
Warpaint released its eponymous second studio album in January 2014 to generally favourable reviews. The band toured in promotion of the album up to summer 2015, after which its members began separate projects. Vocalist and guitarist Emily Kokal collaborated with folk musician Paul Bergmann, contributing vocals to Bergmann's extended play Romantic Thoughts (2015); vocalist and guitarist Theresa Wayman formed a supergroup, BOSS, with Sarah Jones of Hot Chip and Guro Gikling of All We Are, and recorded material for a solo album; drummer Stella Mozgawa recorded with Kurt Vile, Cate Le Bon and Kim Gordon; and bassist Jenny Lee Lindberg released her debut solo album, Right On! (2015), on which Mozgawa also performed drums. According to Lindberg, each member's projects gave the band a "fresh perspective" when writing material for Heads Up.
In an interview with NME in early 2015, Warpaint declared its original intention to release single songs over a period of time in lieu of a third studio album. Wayman explained that the process of "writing, recording, mixing, mastering, releasing, touring , it's two years dedicated to one thing. We want to do bits here and there, like back in the day when they used to make single [sic]." Kokal added that the band's writing process had become more simplified and that when the band "agree that we're stoked about [a new song], we're done. That's a lesson we've learned—not to overanalyse". "No Way Out", a song originally intended for Warpaint, was released in February 2015 and "I'll Start Believing" was released in March; both songs, and a "redux" version of "No Way Out", were released together as a double A-side single the same month.
Upon its release Heads Up received critical acclaim. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album reviewed an average score of 75, based on 17 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". The album has been characterized as art rock and indietronica. (Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United States and the United Kingdom in the 1980s. Indie rock encapsulates indie pop and lo-fi, among others.)
Warpaint released its eponymous second studio album in January 2014 to generally favourable reviews. The band toured in promotion of the album up to summer 2015, after which its members began separate projects. Vocalist and guitarist Emily Kokal collaborated with folk musician Paul Bergmann, contributing vocals to Bergmann's extended play Romantic Thoughts (2015); vocalist and guitarist Theresa Wayman formed a supergroup, BOSS, with Sarah Jones of Hot Chip and Guro Gikling of All We Are, and recorded material for a solo album; drummer Stella Mozgawa recorded with Kurt Vile, Cate Le Bon and Kim Gordon; and bassist Jenny Lee Lindberg released her debut solo album, Right On! (2015), on which Mozgawa also performed drums. According to Lindberg, each member's projects gave the band a "fresh perspective" when writing material for Heads Up.
In an interview with NME in early 2015, Warpaint declared its original intention to release single songs over a period of time in lieu of a third studio album. Wayman explained that the process of "writing, recording, mixing, mastering, releasing, touring , it's two years dedicated to one thing. We want to do bits here and there, like back in the day when they used to make single [sic]." Kokal added that the band's writing process had become more simplified and that when the band "agree that we're stoked about [a new song], we're done. That's a lesson we've learned—not to overanalyse". "No Way Out", a song originally intended for Warpaint, was released in February 2015 and "I'll Start Believing" was released in March; both songs, and a "redux" version of "No Way Out", were released together as a double A-side single the same month.
Upon its release Heads Up received critical acclaim. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album reviewed an average score of 75, based on 17 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". The album has been characterized as art rock and indietronica. (Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United States and the United Kingdom in the 1980s. Indie rock encapsulates indie pop and lo-fi, among others.)