by Tom Alexander (@___alexd)
It’s only been a year since Ava Luna took us to Moon 2, an album/place created by the NYC art-rock collective. Time must move more slowly on Moon 2 – since then, not only have they toured for that album, worked on separate projects (Becca Kauffman with Jennifer Vanilla, Felicia Douglass and Ethan Bassford with Gemma, Julian Fader with Coughy, and Fader + Carlos Hernandez engineering most of the albums you love), but they are already back with a four-song EP titled Pigments. The EP will drop on June 14, but you can pre-order it now, and half of the proceeds from the record will go to the Yellowhammer Fund, fighting for reproductive rights in Alabama and beyond. Friday, they shared the first track, “Take It Or Leave It”.
“Take It Or Leave It” marks another stylistic change for Ava Luna. The synthesizer stabs carry over from Moon 2, but the song feels decidedly earthbound, with its occasional acoustic guitar spots and reggae-focused basslines. Across Fader’s light backbeats, Felicia Douglass playfully croons about tall boys, blackjack, and sleeping in. If “Take It Or Leave It” doesn’t sound like a hot summer day in the city, I’m not sure what does. It’s part steaming sidewalk, part Soyuz capsule.
Ava Luna are currently in the middle of a two-month, three-continent tour, wrapping up their Japan / U.S. dates, and prepping for Europe. Check out the dates below:
EU/UK Tour Dates:
06/13: Lille, France - La Bulle Café
06/14: Paris, France - La Station Gare Des Mines
06/15: Eindhoven, The Netherlands - Altstadt
06/16: Mannheim, Germany - Maifeld Derby Festival
06/18: Manchester, UK - Soup Kitchen
06/19: London, UK - Thousand Islands
06/20: Amsterdam, The Netherlands - Paradiso
06/22: Rotterdam, The Netherlands - V11
06/23: Brussels, Belgium - Botanique
06/25: Luxembourg - Rotondes
06/26: Berlin, Germany - Monarch
06/27: Larz, Germany - Fusion Festival
06/28: Copenhagen, Denmark - Byhave
06/29: Goteborg, Sweden - Nefertiti