Bodies Of Water Spear In The City

Spear in the City' is the fourth album from Los Angeles' Bodies of Water, and their
first release since 2011. Since then, they've played with different friends in different
guises (Music Go Music, Physical Jerks, The Confessions, The Coast), and recorded a
trove of mostly unreleased music. "Before we dove into putting out another record,"
says singer David Metcalf, "we wanted to make sure we had a set of songs that felt like
they needed an audience, which took a while to happen." 'Spear in the City' is an
album of expansive and apocalyptic gospel music, pulsing baritone-led chansons a la
Jacques Brel and Scott Walker, but with the rhythmic groove and vocal polyphony
that's been the group's signature since its beginnings. Metcalf elaborates: "When I tell
people that it's a gospel record, what I mean is that the songs are about the world and
work of the Spirit. It's not worship music. Since I've never felt the need to connect
with religious culture or institutions, songs are a way to keep my eyes trained on the
world inside the world, and the movement of the supernatural dimension into ours.
The songs on 'Spear in the City' are a continuation of a narrative that Bodies of Water
began writing long ago. Songs of experience informed by lives entwined with faith.
Songs that revel in the unknown, and the mysteries at the heart of that faith. 'Spear in
the City' is not dogma, it is a reckoning.