Pottery – "Take Your Time"

Though we were plenty excited about the Montreal quintet Pottery last year — we named their No. 1 EP one the best 2019, and them one the best new bands 2019 — anyone who saw them live knew they were transforming into a whole other band already. We got a glimpse that new version Pottery last month, when they announced their debut album Welcome To Bobby’s Motel with the lead single “Texas Drums Pt I & II.” (It ranked amongst our favorite songs that week.) And today, they’re back with another preview what they have in store next.

Pottery’s latest single is called “Take Your Time,” and it taps right back into that Devo-meets-Talking Heads vein the band were exploring on “Texas Drums.” Opening with a pulsing synth riff, it quickly ratchets up into a nervy, somewhat dark verse — all the tension and interplay between the instruments at first coming across as ever-so-slightly more brooding. (It adds up, considering a press release describes “Take Your Time” as the band’s “commentary on the shadier side recreational drug use.”) But then, the song switches gears for the chorus, opening up into a bright, catchy shout-along melody.

“Take Your Time” comes with a video that brings to life the psychedelic, imagined setting Bobby’s Motel that gives the album its name. Design, illustration, and storyboard/direction credits go to the band’s own Paul Jacobs, while animation and production were in the hands Raised By Bears. The clip is a vivid, sometimes lurid and warped depiction the world Pottery’s album takes place in. Check it out below.

Welcome To Bobby’s Motel is out 4/10 Partisan. Pre-order it here.