Prized Avant-Pop ensemble Flight Attendant is geared up to drop their second studio album this fall, and if you’ve been keeping up with the group, you’ve probably already caught snippets of the highly anticipated “Under the Powerlines” that’s set for release in full on November 8th.
“The album is all about nostalgia,” said frontwoman Karalyne Winegarner. “These songs are sort of designed to tap into our childhoods and the fondness we felt for the America we grew up in; those things we look back on through rose colored glasses.”
The themes vary from track to track, but each song seems to illuminate all of those little alcoves and recesses in the psyche that harbor lost memories from our formative years.
“Dreamland,” the first single from “Under the Powerlines,” dropped on August 9th. It’s a song that moves with a sense of frantic, symphonic angst. It feels like a thing of cosmic folklore, pulling from a chaotic dreamscape of emotions that press against the senses like misty reveries.
“We’ve been playing this one for a long time, which is why it’s probably the most ‘live’ sounding track on the record,” guitarist Vinny Maniscalco explained. “It’s so familiar to us at this point, so it was pretty easy to hop into the studio and bang it out in one day.”
“Dreamland” proudly brandishes Flight Attendant’s unmistakable watermark of sound, though the band isn’t afraid to commission some outside help if they feel it could add something to their music.
“That’s the best part about being in the studio – you can have people stop by and step into the sound booth if they’ve got something to offer.” Maniscalco shared. “It’a like having a pop up chef at your restaurant!”
Naturally, that kind of thing commands a lot of trust in one’s peers, but I suppose it stands to reason that a roster of songs that speak to a collective past would benefit from welcoming some outside agents into the mix. “At the end of the day, I just want to record the best possible song. It’s easy to do that with people you trust,” he said.
It’s not like these are household amateurs either.
Katie Pruitt, local Nashvillian and folk rocker on the rise, contributed some guitar work to “KC Hot Mess,” which is scheduled to hit streaming platforms on September 27th. It’ll be the final release before Flight Attendant delivers “Under the Powerlines” in its entirety on November 8th.
One of the best things about Flight Attendant’s music is that it’s so very singular and original. “Anime”, which dropped on September 6th, is no exception. The song sort of lures you in with a seductive, lyrical preamble before vaulting you into an atmospheric charge of electronic ferocity that keeps a graceful grip on your nerves all the way up until the end.
If I were going to try to compare it to anything, I’d say it’s something adjacent to Radiohead’s “OK Computer” with a twist of modern pop.
That being said, I think the most refreshing thing about this record is that it achieves innovation without imitation, and if you’re an artist of any kind operating under the current creative canopy, you know full well just how hard a feat that is. “Under the Powerlines” is perfectly unique and proficiently daring on all fronts.
“We were so inspired by the creative process that ultimately birthed ‘Anime,’ it really only made sense to run with it and write a full album,” Winegarner shared. “It’s been a monster of an endeavor, but I think we owed it to ourselves to do it. We can’t wait to share it with everyone.”
“Keep an eye out for a Flight Attendant show near you as the band is about to spearhead a Midwest tour before their album drops on November 8th.”
