Sunday, July 9, 2017

New Single ("Frontline"), Album ("Daylight"), and US Tour from The Selecter

(by Steve Shafer)

The Selecter with Pauline Black and Arthur "Gaps" Hendrickson have just released the winning new digital single "Frontline" to promote their upcoming album Daylight, which will be issued on October 6, 2017. 

Picking up where the powerful "Ghost Town"-like "Breakdown" left off (which is from their recent Subculture album, read The Duff Guide to Ska review here), the wildly catchy "Frontline" is critical of our smartphone/social media addicted society, where we have significantly more access to information and each other than ever before in the history of humanity, but actually seem to be increasingly disconnected, numb, and apathetic as a result. "Frontline's" reference to the extrajudicial/racial police killing of Eric Garner makes it also a call for real, in-person protesting and organizing for social justice and change--not Facebook posts that float without impact in the ether of cyberspace.

"Frontline, out on the street
Frontline, out on the street

Don't get me started
I'm all in a rush
You want to push me
Under a bus

I'm feeling restless
I need to believe
In something more
Than I want to stay free

My mind is full
My heart is empty
It's hard to live
In a world of plenty

The more I see
The less I feel
You sell me dreams
But they're not real

Frontline, out on the street
Frontline, out on the street

I feel a hunger
A hunger in me
I saw a man
Pushed off his feet

He tried to be
All he could be
He shouted out
"Now, I can't breathe!"

My mind is full
My heart is empty
It's hard to live
In a world of plenty

The more I see
The less I feel
You sell me dreams
But they're not real

Frontline, out on the street
Frontline, out on the street

I'm nobody's, nobody's hashtag
Ever the mighty shall fall
I'm nobody's, nobody's hashtag
Nobody's hashtag at all"

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The Selecter's "Frontline" is available from these digital retailers (and it would make a great 7" vinyl single...):

iTunes - http://po.st/frontlineitunes
Amazon - http://po.st/frontlineamazon
Spotify - http://po.st/frontlinespotify

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The Selecter will be touring the USA and Canada this August (see dates and venues above in the image). The NYC show also features openers Rude Boy George (who also are playing the Fairfield, CT date) and The Pandemics. If The Selecter are coming anywhere near you, make sure to catch their performance--they're amazingly good these days (here's my write-up of their show in NYC last fall as proof).

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