Corridor share new single “Mourir Demain” & announce new album 'Mimi' for April 26th via Sub Pop.
On Friday, April 26th, 2024, Corridor will release ‘Mimi’, the Montreal-based band’s new album, worldwide on CD/LP/DSPs from Sub Pop.
Corridor’s 'Mimi'—which, fun fact, is also named after guitarist and vocalist Jonathan Robert’s cat—is a record about “getting older” and “figuring out new parts of life”—but despite any claims of transitional growing pains from the band, ‘Mimi’ is also a record bursting with new energy and life.
The band expand on the sounds of their 2019 Sub Pop debut, 'Junior,' and deliver an album with a distinct rhythmic pulse reminiscent of post-punk’s own classic era of melding dance and rock textures.
This is evident on first single, “Mourir Demain,” where over bright, chiming guitars and ascending synths, Robert addresses his looming mortality:
“I wrote it when my girlfriend and I were shopping for life insurance,”
he laughs.
“With our little daughter growing up, we also considered making our will. I said to myself, ‘Oh shit, from now on, I’m slowly starting to plan my death.”
The track comes with an animated, directed by Paul Jacobs.
‘Mimi’ is an eight-track offering, produced by Corridor and Joojoo Ashworth (Dummy, Automatic) at Studio Gamma in Montreal and mastered by Heba Kadry Mastering in Brooklyn. All songs on ‘Mimi’ were composed by Corridor, with lyrics written by guitarist and vocalist Jonathan Robert. It’s their first new music since ‘Junior’, the band’s prismatic Sub Pop debut, released in 2019.
It is now available to preorder from Sub Pop. LP preorders of the album from megamart.subpop.com and select independent retailers in North America will receive the Loser Edition on Baby Pink vinyl. LP orders from Mega Mart 2 (the new, UK-based sibling site to the world-famous Sub Pop Mega Mart) and select independent retailers in the UK and Europe, will receive the Loser Edition on Blue vinyl. All whilst stock lasts.
About Corridor’s Mimi:
You get older, you have a family, and you start to slow down—that’s how things are supposed to go, right? Not for Montreal band Corridor, who have returned on their fourth album, 'Mimi', with a sound and style that’s more widescreen and expansive than anything that’s preceded it. The follow-up to 2019’s 'Junior' is a huge step forward for the band, as the members themselves have undergone the type of personal changes that accompany the passage of time; even as these eight songs reflect a newfound and contemplative maturity, however, Corridor are branching out more than ever with richly detailed music, resulting in a record that feels like a fresh break for a band that’s already established themselves as forward-thinkers.
'Mimi' immediately recalls the best of the best when it comes to indie rock—Deerhunter’s silvery atmospherics immediately come to mind, as well as the spiky effervescence of classic post-punk—but despite these easy comparisons, Corridor remain impossible to pin down from song to song, which makes Mimi all the more thrilling as a listen. The road to this point, as roads to greatness often are, was not without challenge; if the elastic guitar rock of Junior came together quickly—or, as guitarist and vocalist Jonathan Robert describes the process, “in a rush”—then the steady-as-they-go creative pace of Mimi marked a desire to break from the “exhausting” work ethic that previously birthed 'Junior'.
“The goal was to work differently, which is the goal we have every time we work on a new album—to build something in a new way, “This time, we took our time.”
Robert explains.
And so in the summer of 2020, Corridor’s members—Robert, vocalist/bassist Dominic Berthiaume, drummer Julien Bakvis, and multi-instrumentalist Samuel Gougoux—holed away in a cottage to engage in the sort of creative experimentation that would lead to Mimi’s ultimate creation.
“We went there to write, and a lot of ideas came from that retreat, We didn’t end up with songs as much as we did ideas, so the result is a collage of the ideas.”
Berthiaume explains.
Corridor live dates:
Sat. Mar. 09 - Mexico City, MX - Pitchfork Music Festival Mexico City
Tue. Mar. 12 - Los Angeles, CA - Ghengis Cohen
Wed. Mar. 13 - Austin, TX - SXSW
Thu. Mar. 14 - Austin, TX - SXSW
Fri. Mar. 15 - Austin, TX - SXSW
Thu. May 30 - McGill, NV - Schellraiser Festival
Fri. Oct. 4 - Montreal, QC Le National