Given and Taken in Ink

The Rest, “Always on My Mind” and “The Last Day”

It's been a long road for Hamilton, Ontario-based indie rockers, the Rest.  After the death of longtime friend and producer Dan Achen, and the subsequent loss of their entire new album to a hard drive failure, it's pretty inspiring that the band found the strength to continue.  But thanks to the wonders of airplane black box data recovery, at least the latter tragedy was averted.  The Rest have reclaimed their album, SEESAW, and will finally see its release in February 2012.

As a preview of the upcoming record, the Rest has released a double A-side single, downloadable for free until Halloween.  The shoegaze-y "Always on My Mind" is a bit reminiscent of Bends-era Radiohead (for some reason it keeps making me think of "Fake Plastic Trees"), while the infectious "The Last Day" shows off the fantastic soaring vocals of lead singer Adam Bentley.

The single is available on the Rest's bandcamp page, or for streaming below.  You can also preorder SEESAW at the same link.  And if these two songs are any indication of what the band has in store with the upcoming record, consider me very excited for 2012.