New Translations Crave an Uncertain Life in Synth-Pop Gem ‘Modern Lovers’

Earlier this summer, New Translations were among the scene-stealers at a rock & roll takeover during CMA Fest in Nashville. The Music City indie-rock band, led by the charismatic frontperson Oliver Pierce, brought their synth sounds and kinetic stage show to Jon Bon Jovi’s honky-tonk downtown for a daylong bill headlined by Cage the Elephant. It was as weird, and invigorating , as it sounds.

On Friday, New Translations debuted one of the new songs they’ve been working on with producer Yves Rothman ( Blondshell ): “Modern Lovers” is a blast of hypnotic synth-pop that finds Pierce craving a time when life seemed uncertain. Surprisingly, he’s talking about the pandemic, when he and his friend circle were fantasizing about escaping to Thailand.

“It’s a song about the distance between who we were then and who we are now: the shortcomings, the vices, and the miles of hindsight,” Pierce says in a statement. “‘Modern Lovers’ is about longing — not to be who we were then, but for the feeling that anything was possible, whereas now so much of life feels so pathed out and certain.”