listen to The Moles' first new album in 20 years, 'Tonight's Music' (they play NYC tonight)

Australian ex-pat Richard Davies has made lots of records over the last 20 years but he hasn’t released new music as The Moles since 1994. That changes next week (8/12) with Tonight’s Music, a sprawling, 24-track double album that finds his knack for idiosyncratic pop still intact. Not unlike his Cosmos cohort Robert Pollard, Davies’ approach is a bit scattershot, with some songs fully formed and others appearing as sketches. (That befits its production which happened in three different studios over a few years, with a variety of musicians helping along the way.) But there is so much good here, from ringing pop (“Dreamland,” “Beauty Queen of Watts”), to riffy rockers (“Damien Lovelock,” “Red Carpet”) to the kind of quirkier songs that would’ve fit on their classic Untune the Sky (“KBO,” “Chills”). Preorders are available and you can dig into the whole thing right now — a stream of the whole album premieres in this post.

The Moles play a record release show in NYC tonight (8/4) in NYC at Pianos with Latchkey Lights. Davies will be backed by members of Get Him Eat Him, Lame Drivers, and Tiger Dare. It’s a late show, with The Moles on at 10 PM, and tickets are still available. Flyer is below.

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