Be forewarned, this is less a review of this nifty new song and more of a “holy shit, Subtle’s new album is out in three months” kind of deal. “Unlikely Rock Shock” is a funny thing because the title and its frontrunner single status position it as Subtle’s idea of an unlikely hit that will likely surprise you at how pop-ready it is; I was a little worried when I first saw what it was called. But then two seconds later I was listening to it and breathing out a big gust of relief. This was Subtle. Emphatic rhythms from Jel’s sequencer, synth coos and rumbles, Dose’s vocals harmonizing and fly-fishing with hooks and sometimes rapping. Tripping through winding passages all stacked in a line with inexorable poetic logic. This is what we ordered.

Dose-buddy, CMG-buddy Aaron Newell has ExitingARM. I’m probably not allowed to talk too much about what Aaron’s not allowed to leak. But apparently Nool’s in the “coming around” stages. And apparently “Unlikely Rock Shock” is actually the one song that most recalls the prior two entries in this “trilogy” of Hour Hero Yes, that the majority of the rest is much more “indie rock” with “chimey guitars” and some parts recall quote-unquote TV on the Radio. I can’t consider any intentions on the band’s part here questionable. I doubt they want to be unsuccessful, but I think at the same time they realize there’s a hobbit-level ceiling limit on their commercial viability. And TV on the Radio might prove to be a close enough reference point, but if there’s a band that squeezes more market out of Brooklyn hipster chic than Tunde and co., I don’t want to know about it. Nah, Subtle’s a trickster. ExitingARM is a pop record, I’m sure, but “pop” is also just another one of the band’s passionately tricked concepts.

Nool poses the question of how does one regard the esoteric subject matter of Subtle’s past work extended into electro-pop form. If Postal Service made a song with the hook “Exiting arm / the pit and alabaster ascension / to cut out the middle mind’s eye,” would the strange juxtaposition get us all on Gibbard’s jock? Especially if Postal Service had made two albums prior that were some next level genre-mash shit that also provided the backstory? I’m inclined to give Subtle the benefit of the doubt, inclined to also thrill in the contradictions. Because I’m the guy who listens to “Unlikely Rock Shock” over and over the instant it’s posted, who watched that making of video like ten times, gorging myself on the album snippets, rapt as Dose worked on the last track, nodding my head in affirmation when he mentions that he might call it “Providence” and overjoyed when a few days later they drop the track list and that’s what it’s called—overjoyed because it takes me back to a discussion Dose and I had after a show where Subtle opened for, yes, TV on the Radio.

And that’s when I realize that I’m too emotionally invested in this band and in this musical adventure that they themselves are so emotionally invested in, and that’s why in that review of their last album I started bringing up Tarkovsky and Kubrick and all these other directors I hold dear. To paraphrase Carl Th. Dreyer film has always been my first and greatest love, but I love Subtle to the point that I treat them like filmmakers. And I think I love them that way because the complete package of the music along with Dose’s words and artwork is so expressive, so richly framed, and like good cinema it has an inescapable immediacy to it (through the appeal to various senses and parts of the brain) that’s like surface tension on a whole ocean of depth beneath. There are parameters inherent to music that Subtle can’t and shouldn’t try to surpass. They know that; winking, they play quite gracefully on the fringes. I haven’t heard ExitingARM but I believe in it. “Unlikely Rock Shock” is a stepping stone into a world that’s already immersed me. This isn’t just my manna, it’s my quail. It’s my scrumptious manna ‘n quail sandwich. I’m too close to this shit and I won’t have any part in the full review of ExitingARM.

But let’s not rule out a year-end blurb, okay.

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