Philly indie favorites Another Michael have an ambitious plan ahead of them. The indie band announced this week that they’ll release two full-length albums in the next year, Wishes to Fulfill and Pick Me Up, Turn Me Upside Down, previewing them with a single from each project. Wishes to Fulfill will be released on Sept. 22nd via Run For Cover Records, while the latter album is being saved for early 2024.
The lead single for Wishes, titled “Angel,” is accompanied by a music video that shows lead singer Michael Doherty singing at a vintage bar while the band’s bassist and producer Nick Sebastiano portrays the stingy bartender, eager to limit Doherty’s set length. The other two members of the group, multi-instrumentalist Alenni Davis and drummer Noah Dardaris, can be seen as bar patrons throughout the video too. The song starts simply with Doherty’s soft, boyish voice over acoustic guitar strumming, leading into an tearfully sweet chorus where the instrumental palette spreads out to include bass, drums and background vocals. “Angel” rides on smooth, dreamy melodies that fall into the ideal pocket of the simple drum beat, making for extremely satisfying phrases and hooks.
On the other hand, “Pick Me Up, Turn Me Upside Down” is an abbreviated, two-verse tune with nothing but piano chords and Doherty’s vocals. Moments of the song feel stuffed full of words, but Doherty finds a way to add just enough rhythm for the lyrics to work. “Pick Me Up” uses the analogy of having your pockets emptied to describe the messy reset that can help fix a stressful, overwhelming time, especially when you have friends around to lend a hand with the cleanup. However, out of the two tracks, “Angel” is the band at their most attractive and replayable state,, while “Pick Me Up” serves as a glimpse into their more reflective side.
With help from familiar engineer/producer Scoops Dardaris, both of the band’s new albums were written and recorded over the past three years, mostly taking place at Philadelphia’s Headroom Studios as well as a house in Ferndale, NY where the band has recorded past work. On Bandcamp, Sebastiano explains “Initially we set out to make songs to build one record… Which then turned into making songs to build a long record, then a double record, before finally deciding on just making two separate albums.” The albums combine to a total of 21 new tracks, Wishes having nine and Pick Me Up having twelve.
According to the band, Wishes is “timelessly hooky” and contains “nine single-worthy tracks” while their following album will lean to an “experimental side that brings new hues into the band’s vibrant sound .” Visit Another Michael’s Bandcamp or Run For Cover’s website to pre-order Wishes to Fulfill, and watch the music video for their new single “Angel” here. The track “Pick Me Up, Turn Me Upside Down” is available alongside “Angel” on all streaming services. The band will also be performing a free show at Love City Brewing on this Saturday, July 15th.