Even though it’s only August we’re confident that Tampa released one of our favourite albums of 2018 back in March. Rising from the ashes of Danger Cat, the Moncton band’s reincarnation blew us away with their debut Belated Love. But the album proved to be more fruitful than initially advertised. A pair of tracks, “Unless” and “Intro/Heartfelt,” have reappeared after temporarily displacing themselves to the cutting room floor.
The two tracks had come so close to appearing on the album that they have made it as far as appearing on early releases of the album. Ultimately they were cut, not for any lack of quality, but simply to tighten the album.
“Well basically they were supposed to be on the album but when we were doing the pacing we couldn’t seem to fit these tracks and make it flow. The best album order we got didn’t include these tracks, so we decided to leave them out and release them mid-summer as a treat,” says Tampa’s drummer Marc-Andre Belliveau.
The two songs are just as catchy as the rest of their songs on Belated Love, and they are just the right soundtrack to close out the summer to. The two carry rather contrasting themes, however, but both carry that upbeat tempo we’ve come to expect from the band.
“‘Unless’ is a song that I wrote about a kind of one-sided love and how it can sound creepy when described by the person that loves the person that doesn’t love them, like how it can be clear to you and your friends but you can’t shake the feeling,” says lead singer/songwriter Nic LeBlanc.
Meanwhile, he explains that “Heartfelt” is about nearly the opposite notion.
“‘Heartfelt’ is like a mantra verse about getting a heartfelt letter and feeling nothing from it. Without context it can make people see the meaning in different ways.”
Tampa will be performing this Sunday at Area 506. Catch them, and hopefully their new songs, there.