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Jan 29, 2024 By Mark Redfern Photography by Dylan Taylor

Toronto-based duo Ducks Ltd. are releasing a new album, Harm’s Way, on February 9 via Carpark. Now they have shared the album’s fourth single, “Heavy Bag,” via a lyric video. Watch it below, followed by the band’s upcoming tour dates (including some recently announced dates supporting Ratboys).

Ducks Ltd. is Tom McGreevy and Evan Lewis.

McGreevy had this to say about the single in a press release: “It’s about despair and the way that misery loves company. The way that when people are in a bad place they try to undermine the people who are down there with them. To keep them and hold them there. It’s an incredibly ugly impulse, but one that if I’m being honest I’ve caught myself indulging in the past. We tried to do something we hadn’t done before on this one musically, and had to kind of reverse a lot of our instincts in building the arrangement. But it felt like what ultimately suited the song. Macie Stewart and Briar Darling ended up improvising a lot of the string layers at the end which had some really exciting results.”

Harm’s Way is the follow-up to Modern Fiction, which came out in 2021 via Carpark and was one of our Top 100 Albums of 2021.

McGreevy had this to say about the rest of the tracks on the album in a previous press release: “They’re songs about struggling. About watching people I care for suffer, and trying to figure out how to be there for them. And about the strain of living in the world when it feels like it’s ready to collapse.”

Ducks Ltd. previously shared the album’s first single “The Main Thing,” via a music video. “The Main Thing” was one of our Songs of the Week. Then they shared its second single, “Hollowed Out,” via a music video (it was also one of our Songs of the Week). The album’s third single, “Train Full of Gasoline,” was also one of our Songs of the Week.

Dave Vettraino (Deeper, Lala Lala, Dehd) produced the album, which was recorded in Chicago.

Ducks Ltd. say they found themselves in a more confident place when recording Harm’s Way.

“When we got signed, we had played maybe five or six shows ever. After last year, it’s in the hundreds. That experience can change your perception of your own music and songwriting,” said McGreevy. “In the past when we got stuck on a song we had a tendency to look at our favorite records to see how they tackled it. But now, instead of asking ‘what would Orange Juice do?’, we’d ask, ‘what would we do?’”

The band released a new single in 2022, “Sheets of Grey.” It was one of our Songs of the Week but isn’t included on the new album.

Last year the band launched a cover song series, The Sincerest Form of Flattery. It included a cover of The Cure’s “In Between Days,” which featured Jane Inc (the project of Carlyn Bezic), as well as a cover of The Jesus and Mary Chain’s 1989 song “Head On.”

Read our The End interview with Tom McGreevy.

Ducks Ltd. Tour Dates:

02/08/24 - Toronto, ON @ Sonic Boom (album release show) #
02/10/24 - Montreal, QC @ Taverne Tour Festival
03/08/24 - Philadelphia, PA @ Kung Fu Necktie
03/09-10/24 - New York, NY @ New Colossus
03/28/24 - Louisville, KY @ Zanzabar *
03/29/24 - Chattanooga, TN @ Barking Legs Theater *
03/30/24 - Asheville, NC @ Eulogy *
04/01/24 - Charlotte, NC @ Snug Harbor *
04/02/24 - Richmond, VA @ Richmond Music Hall *
04/04/24 - Baltimore, MD @ Ottobar *
04/05/24 - Hamden, CT @ Space Ballroom *
04/06/24 - Portland, ME @ Space Gallery *
04/07/24 - Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground Showcase Lounge *
04/08/24 - Rochester, NY @ Bug Jar *
04/10/24 - Ann Arbor, MI @ Blind Pig *
04/11/24 - Bloomington, IN @ Bishop *
04/12/24 - Iowa City, IA @ Gabe’s *
05/11/24 - Esch/Alzette, LU @ Out Of The Crowd Festival
05/14/24 - Porto, PT @ CCOP
05/15/24 - Lisbon, PT @ Musicbox
05/19/24 - Birmingham, UK @ Hare & Hounds
05/20/24 - Liverpool, UK @ Stockroom
05/21/24 - Leeds, UK @ Headrow House
05/22/24 - Glasgow, UK @ Broadcast
05/23/24 - Edinburgh, UK @ Sneaky Pete’s
05/24/24 - Manchester, UK @ New Century Hall All Dayer
05/25/24 - Bristol, UK @ Dot to Dot
05/26/24 - Nottingham, UK @ Dot to Dot
05/27/24 - London, UK @ Moth Club
05/29/24 - Tours, FR @ Oxford Pub
05/30/24 - Rennes, FR @ L’UBU
05/31/24 - Paris, FR @ Block Party
06/01/24 - Clermont-Ferrand, FR @ La Coopérative de Mai
06/05/24 - Antwerpen, BE @ Trix
06/06/24 - Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso

# Only God Forgives and Cootie Catcher support
* with Ratboys

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