Conventional wisdom dictating the world will end not with a bang, but with a whimper, seems to be playing out famously, but at the very least we’ll get some good music out of it. New video “Shells” by New York “pre-apocalyptic electro indie rock” project Thurlowood is the latest to cover Armageddon in a quiet, dignified, and incredibly catchy manner. With the cool keys of a Nord Electro 6 and a rudimentary drum machine backing, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Andrew Thurlow Wood sings Cold War-era instructions to schoolchildren on what to do in the event of a nuclear attack. Against a music video incorporating archive footage of a 1951 educational film, Wood’s haunting vocal delivery simultaneously emphasizes the futility of such directions were an actual tactical strike ordered on the United States, in addition to the fragility of our continued existence as a human species. Reminiscent of the Postal Service’s similarly depressive earworms and Ra Ra Riot circa 2013’s Beta Love, it’s a beautiful, harrowing single that’s a perfect soundtrack for our increasingly precarious times — give it a watch below, and stream new LP Discontinue Normal Program, out now. Photo by David Yang
