(This one has an official video, but it won’t play outside of Japan…where I am now. So this is how you guys feel all the time, huh?)
Tokyo indie-pop band For Tracy Hyde have tightened up over the years. Initially a vessel for Sarah Records-indebted guitar chug mixed with experiments in chillwave, the group now sounds far more organized. This peaked through on last year’s lovely Film Bleu, but really comes across on their second major-label album He(r)art, an album imitating a film, complete with a first song titled “Opening Logo (FTH Entertainment).” “Floor” could be seen as an early scene establishing a character’s motivation — it’s a shimmering mid-tempo number highlighting the band’s songwriting chops, opening with a piano-driven verse before blooming into a big heartfelt chorus…ending with a closing stretch featuring the greatest sound of all, saxophone blurts. Big-screen comparisons are apt — this is a sound For Tracy Hyde has done plenty before, but now simply sounds bigger. The one revelation? How great a singer vocalist Eureka has become. For this large-screen sound to work, they need the words to really shine, and she delivers them in a way where every word — even “ice cube!” — drips with feeling. Listen above.