Empaths In Retrograde put their best foot forward with their new album The Great, highlighted by the single and video She Comes To The City — showcasing today on Tinnitist.
Life as an artist can be desolate and dire, but it can also come with ample moments of joy and happiness in simple things and making connections. Those thoughts about the highs and lows and rolling with the punches are perfectly captured in the Winnipeg indie-rock group’s debut album. The Great is an honest collection of genre-defying material speaking to vices and virtues using infectious, intriguing melodies and hooks, and incredibly accurate but gritty lyrical vignettes like She Comes To The City.
“She Comes To The City is about the sacrifices one must make for the things we love,” they say. “Written about a tumultuous long-distance relationship from January 2024, it was saved by guitarist Ryan Whiskey’s insistence on its survival. His buzzy guitars complement the catchy singalong hook of the chorus to create our best attempt at a song of the summer (as no one likes driving in a Winnipeg winter).”
Empaths In Retrograde consist of singer / acoustic guitarist Chris Kilrea, singer / electric guitarist Ryan Purdy, singer / bassist Andrew Kehler and drummer Curtis Ullman. She Comes To The City also featured some help from fellow Manitoba musician Kola Kola Pop. The energy and verve exemplify The Great, an album that didn’t take the group long to start. “Recorded in our basement over the course of our first eight months as a band, The Great is a tale of the artist’s journey in 10 divinely connected tracks,” they write.
The LP contains several gems, including the opening Drugs Are Fun, a trippy, free jazz-tinged gem that gets the ball rolling. Composed “over a bonfire” during the summer of 2024, the tune could be compared to Frank Zappa putting his stamp on the Queens Of The Stone Age nugget Feel Good Hit Of The Summer. Meanwhile, the funky Don’t F-ck With The System is a swampy tune the band recorded “fast and dirty” with dynamic results thanks to guest horn players Jordie Ouellet and Benny Mountain. The pandemic-inspired Alright, Alt-Right oozes power-pop flavor while revisiting a time where “it seemed that everyone lost the plot” regarding reality. The southern-laced Meltdown concerns Kilrea’s mental health issues in 2015 and searching for enlightenment. “This is definitely one of my more expansive songs and a personal favorite,” Kilrea says.
Other highlights include The Great (I Chased A Dream), with its ramshackle Replacements-esque approach. Here, Empaths In Retrograde sing of dreams buskers possess, and how those lofty ambitions often end up relegated to discovering hard truths. “This song captures the ego, but with the ability to stare failure in the face and say, ‘At least I tried,’ ” Kilrea says. Elsewhere, the jangled effort Reality reveals some orgiastic activities following an open-mic night. “It was a dream, and when I finally had it in my grasp, it was nothing like I imagined it to be,” Kilrea says. “That is how most dreams are.”
Empaths In Retrograde formed following Kilrea’s two-decade quest to achieve success in music. After meeting, the group discovered how they could create art mirroring “the hopelessness, boredom, and disappointment inherent in the human condition.” In 2024, they released the Yuletide single Holiday Hullaballoo. Empaths In Retrograde describe their style as “roots / punk / soul psychedelica” and it’s hard to argue with that.
Watch the video for She Comes To The City and listen to the song above, hear The Great below, and get a feel for Empaths In Retrograde on their website, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.
