Prolific rockers Oh Sees will continue to stay prolific this summer — just under yet another different name. As revealed last month, the group has recorded a new album credited to the moniker Osees. This forthcoming effort, titled Protean Threat, is due out next month and is being previewed now with “If I Had My Way”.
While previous lead single “Dreary Nonsense” was an aggressive and punchy punk listen, today’s offering leans more into the laid-back, hazy energy of the season. There are bold, punctuating guitars here and there, but overall the track rolls along at a steady, garage rock pace as frontman John Dwyer barks out a list of existential questions:
“Everybody look up!
Are you in love?
Are you free?
Are you alive?
Are you evil?
Are you all alone?
Are you testing it out?
Are you flying solo?
Aren’t you tired?”
In a statement, the reliable leader described the song as “looking at all the extraordinary death in the world now you have to wonder, have you lived your best life? It’s never too late to start.”
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Take a page from Dwyer by rolling down the windows, letting the breeze in, and cueing up “If I Had My Way”. Stream it below.
Protean Threat arrives September 18th via Castle Face Records. It follows last year’s Face Stabber, put out under the good old Oh Sees name.
Dwyer, as always, has additional projects up his sleeves. Later this month, he and his new supergroup Bent Arcana (featuring TV on the Radio’s Kyp Malone) are dropping their self-titled debut.
