Exclaim! Class of 2023 grad, Toronto singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Eliza Niemi, has announced her forthcoming sophomore album, previewed today by an impeccably titled lead single: "Do U FM."
The follow-up to 2022's great Staying Mellow Blows, Progress Bakery is due out of the oven on March 21 via Vain Mina / Tin Angel Records. It was recorded by Louie Short, who co-produced the record alongside Niemi, Jeremy Ray and Lukas Cheung of Mother Tongues. Unsurprisingly, considering Niemi's own prolificity in the Toronto scene, Progress Bakery features contributions from a host of local hands including Dorothea Paas, Evan Cartwright (Cola), Kenny Boothby (Little Kid) and Ed Squires (U.S. Girls).
"A few years ago I sublet an apartment during a pretty heavy time in my life, and right down the street was a spot called Progress Bakery," Niemi explained in a press release. "I would walk by it every day on my way to work, often get a coffee, and chew on its name all morning. I thought it was quite funny and weirdly fitting for where I was at in my life. Their sign out front is half fallen off (it says 'gress bakery') and their espresso is amazing — it's like jet fuel. It embodies many juxtapositions and overall has a really warm and heartening feel."
She continued, "I wanted to make an album like the bakery's broken sign — funny, strange, warm, melancholic and hopeful, that embodied this feeling of making steady yet non-linear progress. I chose to show my process more than in my previous releases — to zoom in on little moments in my thinking about and writing the album. Sometimes you have to dissect something to be able to understand or move through it."
This is evidenced by the back-pocket see-sawing groove of lead single "Do U FM", where Niemi muses, "Kenny hates names in songs / Thinks it makes them not universal / And they might be on to something." Give it a listen below, where you'll also find the album tracklist.
Progress Bakery:
1. Do U FM
2. Novelist Sad Face
3. Green Box
4. Dusty
5. The Linda Song
6. DM BF
7. I TrieD
8. Melodies Like Mark
9. Wildcat
10. How U Remind Me
11. Pocky
12. Bon Tempiii
13. PT Basement
14. Albuquerque II
15. Mary's