Approachable Members of Your Local Community’s sophomore EP Love Thy Neighbor is a buoyant, groovy, and irresistible alt-pop celebration of community filled with calls for empathy, connection, and unity.
‘Love Thy Neighbour’ – Approachable Members of Your Local Community
‘Love Thy Neighbour’ is a celebration of community. Yes, community is in our name, but it really is in its spirit that this EP was born.
It’s always a fun time when Melbourne’s Approachable Members of Your Local Community are involved, and as the band’s prismatic new EP reminds us, one of the best and simplest things we can do to keep the good times rolling and our spirits high is to send a little love to our friends next door. Released February 14, 2020 via AntiFragile Music, Love Thy Neighbor is a buoyant, groovy, and irresistible alt-pop celebration of community filled with calls for empathy, connection, and unity.
kickin’ everyone out of the block
don’t know what they’re thinking of
your TV’s a liar; this town’s of fire
the kids have all run away
nothing left to make them stay
it’s gentrified; Grey Street at night
take it for granted, but it’s not the same
I’m asking for a small change
take back tomorrow, it’ll be okay
I’m asking for a small change
– “Small Change,” Approachable Members
Positivity and hope are increasingly scarce commodities only two months in to 2020, with novel coronavirus continuing to spread across the world, the bushfires continuing to rage in Australia, and any number of daunting new challenges seeming to confront local and world stages on a seemingly consistent basis. Thankfully, positivity and hope are second nature to Australian quartet (and Atwood Editor’s Pick) Approachable Members of Your Local Community, who have brought smiles to millions of faces and funky-fresh sounds to millions of ears since their debut only three years ago.
Consisting of Joshua Blashki, Maxwell Korman, Samuel Korman, and Michael Fisher, Approachable Members gathered speed soon after their 2017 debut single “Millennium Queen.” They then solidified their artist-to-watch status with 2018’s debut EP If there’s anything you need, please don’t hesitate to contact us – a mouthful of a record that features the dazzling song “Semiotic Vision,” among others. Following a series of singles releases (“Only Friend” and “One I Need”) in 2018, Approachable Members kicked off their sophomore EP run in mid-2019 and haven’t look backed.
“Working on ‘Only Friend’ and ‘One I Need,’ we realized that there’s something special in collaborating with other artists,” Approachable Members tell Atwood Magazine. “Those songs happened organically, with lots of people working together to in an almost neighborly dynamic. That naturally continued with the EP. We worked with our favourites Dulcie while on tour with Polish Club to write ‘Strangest Places’, had our friend and Melbourne legend Alex Lahey join in as co-writer and producer on ‘Small Change’, and our best bud and studio collaborator Gab Strum (Japanese Wallpaper) producing for half the EP. At the same time, these twelve months have been important for us to continue learning more and more about the music we love to create, and we think the EP tracks that journey – especially with ‘Strangest Places’, ‘The Internet’, and ‘Fanboy’ being self-produced by Sam Korman, after learning heaps from our friends and partners. Sam has led the button-pressing experiences and indeed it has been nothing but a communal learning experience.”
In premiering Love Thy Neighbour‘s lead single “On + On” back in mid-2019, Atwood Magazine‘s Kelly McCafferty praised Approachable Members for delivering “the nostalgic and bright-pop summer jam we all need.” The penultimate song on a record full of life and effervescent energies, “On + On” is a reassurance – a driving pocketful of sunshine inspiring listeners to persevere and never “give up” in whatever mess or magic they find themselves.
Yet it’s Love Thy Neighbour‘s opening track “Small Change” that ends up making the greatest lasting impression on the listener. Fueled by singer Joshua Blashki’s emotional charged reflection on societal tension and individual volition, “Small Change” reminds us to stand up for what we believe in – to be the change we want to see in this world: “Take back tomorrow, it’ll be okay. I’m asking for a small change.”
“It’s about taking back tomorrow, and how everyone’s small change has a big impact,” Approachable Members say of their standout opener.
Sleeping rough and not taking card
You know it never had to be this hard
You know it’s time for changing tides
Palm trees line the esplanade
All we need is a fresh start
Revitalise, the Future’s Bright
Take it for granted
But it’s not the same
I’m asking for a small change
Take back tomorrow
It’ll be okay
I’m asking for a small change
Love Thy Neighbour combines Approachable Members Of Your Local Community’s signature pop and hypnotic psychedelia with a newfound urgency for action and awareness.
“Strangest Places,” written with Perth indie pop four-piece Dulcie, is amongst the group’s most entrancing work yet – a fervent n’ feverish rush of harmony beset by shimmering cascades of synth and heavy, thumping beats. “The Internet” balances a deliciously moody bass line with a cutting critique of online behavior and the vile ways in which people will speak to one another when they feel there are no consequences to their actions. Meanwhile, “Fan Boy” exemplifies the band’s entrancing sonic capabilities, and closer “Citris Fruit” proves a bittersweet lyrical immersion into lovesick struggles and strains with a shining light at the end of the tunnel.
No matter where you look on Love Thy Neighbour, an uplifting message of hope ultimately prevails. “Love Thy Neighbour is a celebration of community. Yes, community is in our name, but it really is in its spirit that this EP was born,” the band explain. “This EP came from our reflections about growing up, seeing our neighborhoods change and gentrify, and the internet become a more whacky and even sometimes frightening place. It doesn’t take a genius to point out that there is some serious social division and hardship across the world right now. The Community is facing a whole series of challenges that aren’t easy, and aren’t disappearing anytime soon. Love Thy Neighbour is a call for positivity and hope, which Small Change talks directly to.”
They continue, “In traditional Approachable style, we’ve consulted our local Rabbi and summoned our biblical roots in naming this release Love Thy Neighbour. It’s about empathy – to people, to place and the environment. We hope that each song on the EP raises up that pop groove which makes your foot go ‘tap’, but also brings out your weird, your fun, and your different – because it’s time to let loose. Stay safe, and stay approachable.”
Six elevating tracks inject a stream of warm sunkissed rays into a relentlessly turbulent time.
Whether your concerns deal with looming pandemic or the crush who hasn’t texted you back, Love Thy Neighbour enchants with the sunny, impassioned down-to-earth humanity we’ve come to love in Approachable Members Of Your Local Community’s music. Stream Love Thy Neighbour out now, and connect with the band via their website and socials below.
They’d love to hear from you.
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Love Thy Neighbour
an EP by Approachable Members of Your Local Community
