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Nov 05, 2021 By Caleb Campbell

Unreal City, the upcoming sophomore album from Toronto dream pop duo Twin Rains, almost was never made. After the pair’s 2016 debut Automatic Hand, the subsequent years brought new physical and mental health challenges to the band, and as band members Jay Merrow and Christine Stoesser describe, the pair were unsure if they even wanted to make another record. However, the atmospheric and reflective musings found on Unreal City prove even more essential now, in a time when they hit more viscerally than ever.

The duo has already shared “Strawberry Moon” and “The Garden,” the first two singles from the album, and today they’re back with “Believe It All” and an accompanying music video, premiering with Under the Radar.

“Believe It All” is a decadent dream pop reverie, with Merrow and Stoesser drifting over top of indelible synth melodies and slight hints of percussion. Fans of Beach House should be right at home in the pair’s celestial atmosphere. Yet, like much of the album, there’s a deeper more contemplative core beneath the track’s crystalline beauty. The lyrics verge on apocalyptic, with thunder, lightning, and forest fires set to reclaim the world from humankind.

Amidst it all, Stoesser turns inward. As she describes, “It’s about misinformation, but not necessarily misinformation from the internet, although that’s part of it because it’s unescapable,” says Stoesser. “But I was writing more about the misinformation you feed yourself, in your own head. And how it can become a creed, and you start to believe it all.”

Meanwhile, the accompanying video was shot in black and white, with Stoesser playing a street preacher on a busy Toronto intersection. For the video, the band also worked with director Jon Staav, cinematographer Viktor Cahoj, and video editor Samantha D’Alessio.

Merrow says of the video, “I loved the idea but was nervous if Christine would be able to pull off the act in front of the thousands of people who cross the corner everyday. She is a shy person with strangers on top of it all, but she pulled it off! It wasn’t until after the shoot that she mentioned she felt embarrassed.”

Check out the song and video below, and watch for Unreal City, due out November 19th.