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Jan 26, 2023 By Mark Redfern Photography by Kristina Pedersen

Montreal-based dream pop duo Bodywash have announced a new album, I Held the Shape While I Could, and shared its first single, “Massif Central,” via a music video. I Held the Shape While I Could is due out April 14 via Light Organ. Check out “Massif Central” below, followed by the album’s tracklist and cover art.

Bodywash’s lineup is Chris Steward and Rosie Long Decter. A press release explains that “Massif Central” was inspired by “a typo in a government letter [that] caused Steward to lose his legal work status in Canada.”

Steward elaborates in the press release: “After eight years living in Canada, in the Spring of 2021, a government clerical error caused me to lose my legal status here. As a UK national, I lost my right to work. My savings trickled away during months where I could do little but pace the corners of my apartment. I was prepared to pack my bags and leave as the life I’d hoped to construct for myself seemed to vanish into a bureaucratic abyss…. ‘Massif’ is the sound of wailing into a cliff and not knowing if you’ll hear an echo, The spoken word is inspired by a squirrel that was trapped in the wall behind my bed, clawing its way to salvation. With the help of friends, family, music, and a few immigration lawyers (and the rest of my savings), I’m now a permanent resident here. But this song remains as testament to my experience with an exploitative institution.”

Jordan Allen directed the “Massif Central” video and had this to add: “With ‘Massif Central,’ we wanted to encapsulate the panic and urgency that Chris experienced, and have the abstracts portray the anxiety and hopelessness one can feel at the hands of bureaucracy. I chose graphics that heavily leaned into feelings of being lost in a maze, with towering structures and horizon lines pulling you into them. The idea was that the camera would be both a CCTV view of the band, but also glitching to reveal the more emotionally internal visual aspects.”

I Held the Shape While I Could is the follow-up to their 2019 released debut album, Comforter. It was recorded with longtime drummer Ryan White and recording/mixing engineer Jace Lasek (a member of The Besnard Lakes).

I Held the Shape While I Could Tracklist:

1. In As Far
2. Picture Of
3. Massif Central
4. Bas Relief
5. Perfect Blue
6. Kind of Light
7. One Day Clear
8. Sterilizer
9. Dessents
10. Ascents
11. Patina
12. No Repair

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