Second single "Victoria" from The Melancholy Kings' sophomore album out

New Jersey rockers The Melancholy Kings present their latest single 'Victoria', a jangly guitar rocker resurrected and revamped from the time when the band members were busy wearing down the grooves of their R.E.M., Miracle Legion and Replacements records. As the story goes, we all have our demons, and it’d be nice if we could all help each other exorcise them. This is the second taste of their second album 'Her Favorite Disguise', forthcoming via Magic Door Record Label.

"Victoria is one [guitarist] Pete and I wrote a while ago. It was inspired by the party scene of the late 80’s, where it seemed to me people were alternately depressed or manic a lot of the time and not in that happy middle. I thought it would be nice if we could all settle down a bit, slow life down a tick or two and enjoy the little things together.  That was the impetus," says singer Michael Potenza.  

"Pete and I worked up the song pretty much as it is now and then it sat for a long while. We resurrected it when we started working on 'Her Favorite Disguise' by reworking some of the more dated lyrics (when we wrote the song, for instance, it was a pre-cell phone time so the first line about “staring into your phone” and an “app for demonology” was added later). The song is a bit of a time capsule to a guitar-forward, jangly, power pop time, but I do think the essential message — that we all have inner demons that could use some mutual kindness to exorcise — carries forward."

“I think this song captures our live sound more thoroughly than any other on the album.  Other than a dash of organ at the end, and guest vocalist Olivia Selig adding some thickening to the harmonies in the choruses, there are basically no other enhancements to the song.  I think the raw energy of our live set really comes across as a result. The video, which was captured on a GoPro we set in in the corner of the studio when we recorded the song, starts and ends with the band discussing the song and the take, giving the viewer a taste of our process in the studio.  This song probably has the least amount of overdubs than any on the album, so the video captured nearly its entire recording,” says bassist Scott Selig.

As of October 23, 'Victoria' is available everywhere digitally, including Apple Music, Spotify and Bandcamp. On November 28, the 'Her Favorite Disguise' album will be released digitally and also on vinyl. It can already be pre-ordered on Bandcamp.