Earlier this summer, Exclaim! New Faves alumni and Class of 2024 grads Thermal — the grungy Toronto band with a penchant for '90s revivalism — released "Kiss the Ground," and today, they return with another new single called "Smile at You."
Produced by Dylan Frankland, the new track and "Kiss the Ground" both follow the five-piece's 2023 debut EP, Plaster Girl. While the latter revelled in capturing the energy of Thermal's live show, today's release is a densely layered exploration of the experience of self-surveillance as a woman.
Playing with the grey areas between the darkness of shadowy, distorted guitars and gossamer vocals, "Smile at You" is a song about "dressing up to be seen, searching for doses of empty validation," the band's Lauren Armstrong explained in a statement.
She continued:
I wanted to write a song that was rooted in storytelling rather than referencing personal experiences as I have in other recent tracks I was listening to a lot of PJ Harvey at the time when this song came together and I just love how she writes about womanhood. The chorus was a happy accident too. Josh [McIntyre] and I write separately a lot of the time and he sent me an idea with an electronic drum track as a placeholder that accidentally got nudged when he exported it. I thought it was intentional so wrote a chorus with a drum fill in the middle and after sending my vocal idea back, we decided it had to stay that way.
Listen to "Smile at You" below.