And So I Watch You from Afar - Heirs (2015)

When I listen to Heirs, the new album from Belfast rockers And So I Watch You From Afar, I think of bands from the last ten years like Fang Island and, minus some extreme tempo changes and helium-infused vocals, the Mae Shi—groups who toyed with toothy pop melodicism and applied it to song structures indebted to left-field instrumental rock structures that swept American indie around the mid-2000s. That is to say, this record feels familiar while coming across as totally fresh and invigorating, and if you didn't manage to grab a strong cup of coffee this morning, Heirs will do you just fine. It's out May 4 via Sargent House, but why wait that long—you can stream the whole thing below, right now.

"Its central theme is about the inheritance of ideas," guitarist Rory Friers tells FADER about the album. "In that we're all heirs to other peoples' passion, which in turn inspires ourselves. We took the first half of 2014 off and spent almost every waking moment together in our rehearsal room. About 30 tracks where made in total, whittled down to 10 for the album. Because making the album was such an intentionally intense and full time experience none of us where listening to much other music or even experiencing much else outside of it. So, it feels like a very pure representation of what happens when these four people decide to make music together. It was a very intense time and the record has been shaped by that."