French For Rabbits - The Overflow

New Zealand’s dream-pop luminaries French for Rabbits have dedicated nearly a decade to creating warmly detailed and expansive music together. The album follows on from their elegantly stated second LP The Weight of Melted Snow and their 2014 break-out Spirits, which received millions of streams, and song placements everywhere from the Vampire Diaries to Netflix’s Never Have I Ever TV series.

 On their new album, the group, led by Brooke Singer, sweeps forward with their most dazzling body of work to date - from the introverts’ anthem ‘The Outsider’ to the unfurling end-of-the-world statement piece “Nothing in my Hands”. Written and recorded mostly in 2020 in Wellington, the songs on The Overflow cover a wide range of topics, with the common threads of introversion and anxiety woven throughout. Yet, on first listen, you could be forgiven for mistaking the album’s subject matter for something lighter and more upbeat, resplendent with featherlight vocals and delicate layers. “I didn’t want there to be any filler,” explains Singer. “There is care in every lyric, and the production feels creative and joyful. Inevitably it’ll be interpreted as melancholic and ethereal – and there is nostalgia here in spades, but peppered with dry humour and curiosity too”.

Title-track ‘The Overflow’ is an optimistic take on anxiety and panic attacks - hopeful and soothing on the surface, with deep-seated fears close beneath. “Put your coat on, we’re entering the storm” she announces on ‘Ouija Board’, a feast of harmonies, jagged guitars and majestically spooky organ that nods to both The Beatles and The Addams Family. ‘Ouija Board’ darkly pokes fun at hitting rock bottom, “there is nowhere else to go from here but up” she sings.

‘The Outsider’ was written in Los Angeles in 2019 with Marc Orrell (Dropkick Murphys) and Brooke Johnson. The song distils the feeling of being an awkward introvert at a party - staring at your phone on the edges of a crowd. “I’m quite a shy person, and the culture shock coming from my normally quiet life in Wellington was real!” she laughs. 

Described by the band as their most “immediate and honest” record to date, The Overflow draws on the influence of contemporary artists Laura Jean, Hannah Cohen and Hundred Waters alongside the storytelling of folk and rap music, and even references 90’s cultural touch points such as Moby, Enya and The Lion King. Whilst its inspirations are diverse - the result is a singular album that is confident in its delivery. The Overflow was recorded with NZ producer/musician Jol Mulholland (Tami Neilson, Neil Finn, Delaney Davidson, Troy Kingi) in Wellington at The Surgery and Auckland at The Lab, with mastering by Carl Saff in Chicago.

The Overflow Tracklisting

1. The Overflow
2. Passengers
3. The Outsider
4. Walk the Desert 
5. The Dark Arts
6. Ouija Board
7. Money or the Bag
8. Poetry Girl
9. Nothing in my Hands
10. Middle of the House