Chicago garage rockers Waltzer have announced their debut album Time Traveler. It hits stores later this month, and the band is heralding its arrival with the new song “Lantern”.
Waltzer are led by Sophie Sputnik, a former musical theater kid and onetime leader of Florida punk duo Killmama. She had tried to record under her solo moniker but struggled, saying in a statement that, “It had no authenticity. It sounded like a people-pleasing record or something.”
With Waltzer, Sputnik has written an album around her idea of “future tripping” — the feeling of daydreaming about an idealized future before the disappointing present comes crashing in. “I called it Time Traveler because it’s about traveling through your thoughts while staying in one place,” she said.
Waltzer’s latest single, “Lantern”, wrestles with these themes through the lens of wavering attentiveness. “I read all the books only half way through,” Sputnik sings over crunchy, chugging guitars. “My attention span is a swinging lantern beating up a blinded beetle.” She said that, “I wrote ‘Lantern’ about my experience with ADD. It’s a miracle that I ever finished writing it at all!”
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The track comes with a stop-motion music video. It shows a figure in a red jumpsuit with a lightbulb for a head dancing in a psychedelic landscape. Check out “Lantern” below.
Time Traveler lands in the present on January 29th, and pre-orders have already begun over on Side Hustle Records. Previously, Waltzer shared the singles “I Don’t Wanna Die”, “Destroyer”, and “Eugene”.
Time Traveler Artwork:
Time Traveler Tracklist:
01. Orbit #9
02. I Don’t Wanna Die
03. Lantern
04. The Burning
05. Ugly Misfits
06. Eugene
07. Time Traveler
08. Destroyer
