Premiere: You Said Strange Drop Video For “(Song For A) Wasted Land”

At the end of 2022, French psychedelic noise-pop quartet You Said Strange shared a new LP entitled Thousand Shadows Vol.1, a release consisting of psychedelic pop, proto grunge, and shoegaze sonics, inspired by the band’s experiences on tour across Europe and North America that year. Now, You Said Strange announce the impending release of a follow-up to Vol. 1 entitled Thousand Shadows Vol. 2 (due April 28, 2023 via EXAG / Le Cépe Records). Together, both Volumes compose the band’s sophomore LP.“A second chapter was needed to highlight the many shadows that still linger everywhere,” said the band. “The shadows that linger on the borders, hiding the violence of the fights for them. The shadows that time has on relationships and their persistence, because the shadows move.”

Amidst themes of shoegaze, noise pop, and psychedelic rock throughout the upcoming release, You Said Strange incants their music in which melancholy, love, and the search for plenitude meet. As the band continued: “Plato’s cave, in a modern version, would be one of toxic relationships, antidepressants, and the acceptance of the regression of freedom and/or the vision of a dying world…”

In celebration of the announcement of their new LP, You Said Strange also shares the record’s first single, “(Song For A) Wasted Land,” alongside an accompanying music video.

“(Song For A) Wasted Land” is a parlor, a spittoon, a real confession through which the speaker reveals his fear of seeing his world, which so cherished and protected him, become a dangerous trap closing in on him. With this track, You Said Strange takes listeners into the universe of a new opus, full of promise.

The music video’s story is described as such: Two sections of walls, and a rudimentary decoration — this is all that constitutes the decor of this studio apartment which sees Eliot (vocals) alone and sullen, telling us the story of a disaster. Facing the mirror, he stares at himself, plays the comedy, and puts the viewer in the position of the subject. He frantically puts on outfits, cigarette in mouth. Is this his mental space or a suburban lodge? Later, we discover him in another space plunged into darkness where the lyrics scroll over him in a karaoke style to highlight this text, the main object of our story. Cigarette after cigarette. everything is consumed, everything is destroyed, but the message of despair gives way to the will to fight. Is it already too late?

As summarized by the band: “We wanted to work around the studio aesthetic that we find particularly interesting in the cinema and television series of the 90s. A simple decor like the sitcoms that created familiar spaces in the collective imagination; these settings that have seen characters evolve by partitioning us into a setting as the only point of reference.”

You Said Strange’s newest LP, Thousand Shadows Vol. 2, is out April 28, 2023. Stay tuned for more, coming soon.

Originally from Giverny, You Said Strange recorded their debut album Salvation Prayer in Portland, with Peter G. Holmstrom (The Dandy Warhols) as the producer. 

In 2019, the band performed live on KEXP, following their track “Brain” being featured by host Kevin Cole on an episode of The Afternoon Show. Watch the full performance HERE.

On December 3, 2022, You Said Strange shared their latest release, Thousand Shadows Vol.1.  Mythomaniac kings, the Mediterranean, the colors of mourning — these are the detailed subjects, described against a backdrop of psychedelic pop, proto grunge, and shoegaze. The first part of a powerful, reverberant, melodious second album, drawing its inspiration and production stem from encounters during their 2022 European and North American tours, between Normandy, New York, and Oregon. On April 28, 2023, You Said Strange will share the second part of their sophomore release, a follow-up to Vol. 1 entitled Thousand Shadows Vol.2.