somesurprises, "High Rise" (Drawing Room)

Through hard work and excellent songwriting and producing over the last few year, Seattle quartet somesurprises have scored a deal with New York's well-respected Drawing Room Records, who will release their self-titled album in September. For a change, the universe appears to be working as it should be. somesurprises solidifies the group's unerring knack for sumptuous melodies swathed in hazy, spangled guitars and halo'd by leader Natasha El-Sergany's opiated, sighing vocals. At her day job, El-Sergany works as an immigrant rights lawyer, with all the nerve-wracking struggle that that entails; somesurprises seems to be her escape hatch into dreamy bliss states. Thankfully, we listeners too benefit from her extracurricular creativity.

"High Rise" is one of many standouts among somesurprises' eight tracks. El-Sergany describes it as "a song about waking up in the middle of a freefall from a tall, glass building, forgetting how to look at new things for the first time, and the subtle difference between serene daydream and truly grounding yourself." It begins with the dewy tremulousness of Broadcast at their most tender, El-Sergany and Josh Medina's radiant guitar chime and Emma Danner's cyclical bass line lulling you into a beatific swoon. Then at 2:30, "High Rise" abruptly accelerates into an elegant chug courtesy of drummer Nico Sophiea, building a cool head of steam similar to that of the Velvet Underground's "Foggy Notion," but irradiated by lysergic, Savage Republic-like guitar. It's the album's most explosive and euphoric moment, all the more potent for rising out of the prevailing gorgeous languor. Check it out below.

somesurprises perform Saturday, August 10, at Wainestock MMXIX at Volunteer Park Amphitheatre, and throw an album-release party Friday, August 30, at Clock-Out Lounge.