Exclusive Mp3: Francine

FRANCINE's new Airshow (Q Division, out June 13), their third album, is brimming with bittersweet, expertly arranged pop gobbets that are at once complex and completely accessible — great headphones music that evokes a strange, intangible nostalgia. Led by songwriter Clayton Scoble, who has a way with nifty couplets like, “You learned to shift lefthanded at night/So you could memorize her fingers in the right,” the band celebrate the disc’s release Friday, June 2 at the Paradise Lounge. With openers FURVIS (who are, like Francine before them, have survived a period of Pavement impersonation before finding fresh new indiepop avenues to call their own) and the INVISIBLE RAYS.

This is the best song on Airshow, and it shows how far they've come: sort of like the Beatles' "Day Tripper" as refracted through a series of bloodied and broken mirrors, it's got a classic melancholic melody that crackles through Notwisty electro-glitch pulses, chillout channel sweeps, and last-piano-in-the-universe decay.

DOWNLOAD: Francine, "Daysucker" (mp3)

PREVIOUSLY:
Pop-o-rama: Francine and Dave Aaronoff and the Details. By Brett Milano.
Familiar names and faces: Clayton Scoble's Francine and a third Janovitz brother. By Jonathan Perry.
Pop secrets: Damon & Naomi and Francine. By Brett Milano.