Majical Cloudz’s last album, Impersonator, was a bummer — a raw, emotive, inimitable bummer. It spoke to a lot of people, but for those who it didn’t resonate with, Are You Alone? might feel like a better introduction to the Montreal-based duo. All three of the singles that we’ve heard from the sophomore album are wide-open love songs in their own way; both the title track and “Silver Car Crash” handle the emotion with timidity, as if Devon Welsh isn’t sure if it’s good for him to feel so vulnerable. But “Downtown” is different. It’s a nod to Petula Clark, a deafening admission that he is in capital-L love and he doesn’t care who knows it. Creeping doubt slips in for a moment, and even so, that moment is one of the song’s best: “One thing I’ll do, if it ever goes wrong/ I’ll write you into all of my songs/ And if one day I die, I hope they will say/ That he was obsessed and it was okay.” Watch Welsh and Neil Corcoran’s video for “Downtown” below.

Tour dates:
01/15 Toronto, ON @ The Garrison Club
01/16 Detroit, MI @ TBA
01/18 Chicago, IL @ Schubas
01/22 Vancouver, BC @ Cobalt
01/23 Seattle, WA @ TBA
01/24 Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios
01/26 San Francisco, CA @ The Chapel
01/29 Los Angeles, CA @ TBA

Are You Alone? is out 10/16 via Matador.