TOPS - Bury the Key. Tour Dates

TOPS — musicians David Carriere, Jane Penny, Marta Cikojevic, and Riley Fleck — write timeless music that reliably threads immediacy and depth. Bury the Key, their first full-length since 2020 and with new label home Ghostly International, is a captivating reintroduction for the Montréal band: ever refined, undoubtedly masters of their melodic craft yet unafraid of evolving and testing themselves against different, at times darker tones. The album faces feelings once locked away, engaging the give-and-take between happiness, hedonism, and self-destruction.

While often inhabited by fictional figures, their glowing, grooving, self-produced songs draw from personal observations: intimacy (both inside and outside the band), toxic behavior, drug use, and apocalyptic dread. When recording started, they noticed a shift and leaned in, jokingly dubbed "evil TOPS," says Penny. "We're always kind of seen as a soft band or like naive or friendly in a Canadian way, but we made it a challenge to really channel the world around us." Through the lens of a looming epoch and the clarity that comes with age, TOPS dip into a more sinister disco realm with Bury the Key, giving their soft-focus sophisti-pop a sharpened edge.

Out August 22nd on muck-colored vinyl, CD, and cassette, with artwork by Robert Beatty, Bury the Key is up for pre-order now. Records are available bundled with TOPS logo t-shirts.

TOPS kick off a massive headlining tour in September. The news follows the band's appearance at Coachella and the debut of "ICU2" last month. Streaming today, their next single, "Chlorine", is an "empty love" ballad that crosses toxins, the nostalgia of chemical-filled waterparks, and the comfort of an unhealthy bar night. Jane Penny explains: "The emotional spectrum of how you grow up, the things we experience, the ways that we fill ourselves up may also be the things that destroy us."