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Sep 09, 2021 By Caleb Campbell Photography by Melissa Desmond

Boston-based indie rocker Carissa Johnson is back this fall with her new LP, Blue Hour. Recorded over lockdown, the record is Johnson’s first solo album since 2016’s Only Roses. In the intervening years, she’s been playing with her band, The Cure-Alls, but quarantine found her retreating inward for one of her most personal offerings yet. The record sees Johnson explore loneliness and self-doubt, but the accompanying instrumentals are relentless and kinetic, drawing Johnson’s new wave influences into stadium-ready indie pop.

Earlier this year Johnson shared “Wasting Dreams,” her first single from the record, and today Johnson debuted her latest single from the record, “The Sound,” along with an accompanying video, premiering with Under the Radar.

A towering swelling synth line opens “The Sound,” quickly joined by driving kick drums and churning basslines. From its first moments, the track leans into visceral synth rock drama perfectly encapsulated by its opening lines一“Writing this to you and driving eighty miles an hour / Dreams and reality scenes pacing by.” That 80 mph pace continues through the track, a taste of the explosive heights to come on the full record.

Yet, the track has an introspective core beneath the arena-sized bombast. As Johnson explains, “‘The Sound’ is a song about being caught between the two worlds of reality and imagination. It’s about getting lost in a situation that doesn’t have you seeing or thinking clearly, and trying to make sense of that. It’s a very self-reflective and anxious song that admits a sense of defeat yet it’s rooted in love and complete acceptance.”

Check out the song and video below and watch for Blue Hour, due out November 12th.