Toronto’s Ducks Ltd. today shared their moody, slow-burning new song “Heavy Bag,” the fourth and final pre-release single from their forthcoming album Harm’s Way, out February 9, 2024 via Carpark Records. “It’s about despair and the way that misery loves company. The way that when people are in a bad place they try to undermine the people who are down there with them. To keep them and hold them there. It’s an incredibly ugly impulse, but one that if I’m being honest I’ve caught myself indulging in the past,” explains singer/lyricist Tom McGreevy. “We tried to do something we hadn’t done before on this one musically, and had to kind of reverse a lot of our instincts in building the arrangement. But it felt like what ultimately suited the song. Macie Stewart and Briar Darling ended up improvising a lot of the string layers at the end which had some really exciting results.”
“Heavy Bag” arrives on the heels of additional album tracks “Train Full of Gasoline,” “Hollowed Out,” and “The Main Thing,” which saw praise from Billboard, Brooklyn Vegan, Consequence, Paste, Pitchfork, Stereogum, Rolling Stone, and Uproxx, among many others. Harm’s Way is available for pre-order. See “Heavy Bag” below:
Following a handful of previously announced dates that include a February 8th hometown record release show at Sonic Boom, Ducks Ltd. will meet up with Ratboys in late March for a two-week U.S. tour. The band will then head overseas in May to play throughout Europe and the UK. A current itinerary is below.
Ducks Ltd. make inviting and frenetic guitar pop for when life feels overwhelming. While the band’s songs are ostensibly breezy, a palpable anxiety boils underneath that communicates something deeper about everyday existence. On Harm’s Way, the duo of McGreevy and guitarist Evan Lewis hones in on interpersonal and societal collapses, urban decay, and the near-impossibility of keeping a level head when everything around you seems to be falling apart.
Even with its often dark subject matter, Harm’s Way is Ducks Ltd.’s most vividly rendered and collaborative collection yet. It’s an undeniable evolution for the band, not just in how these songs soar, but in their entire writing and recording processes. Composed on tour while supporting acts like Nation of Language, Illuminati Hotties, and Archers of Loaf, the album displays the band’s finely tuned songcraft and well-earned, road-tested confidence.
The band, fortified by this strong sense of sonic identity and a self-assurance in their new material—and in contrast to their acclaimed 2021 debut LP Modern Fiction and their 2019 EP Get Bleak, both self-recorded and self-produced in a Toronto basement—wanted to bring Harm’s Way to life in a new city, with an outside producer, and with some of their favorite musicians. Working with producer Dave Vettraino (Dehd, Deeper, Lala Lala), they enlisted a marquee cast of Windy City collaborators to round out the tracks on Harm’s Way, including: Finom’s Macie Stewart (violin, string arrangements); Ratboys’ Marcus Nuccio (drums on most tracks); Dehd’s Jason Balla (who helped arrange the backing vocals, to which he also contributed); and backing vocals from Julia Steiner (Ratboys), Nathan O’Dell (Dummy), Margaret McCarthy (Moontype), Rui De Magalhaes (Lawn), and Lindsey-Paige McCloy (Patio). The band’s touring drummer, Jonathan Pappo, and bassist Julia Wittman also appear on the LP.
Harm’s Way is Duck Ltd.’s most intuitive and organic album yet, the result of keen observation, self-possessed songwriting, and a collaborative spirit. Building on the successes of their previous releases, the deeply relatable album displays a band operating at a nuanced, lyrical and musical best.
Ducks Ltd. Upcoming Shows
02/08/24 – Toronto, ON @ Sonic Boom (album release show) #
02/10/24 – Montreal, QC @ Taverne Tour Festival
03/08/24 – Philadelphia, PA @ Kung Fu Necktie
03/09-10/24 – New York, NY @ New Colossus
03/28/24 – Louisville, KY @ Zanzabar *
03/29/24 – Chattanooga, TN @ Barking Legs Theater *
03/30/24 – Asheville, NC @ Eulogy *
04/01/24 – Charlotte, NC @ Snug Harbor *
04/02/24 – Richmond, VA @ Richmond Music Hall *
04/04/24 – Baltimore, MD @ Ottobar *
04/05/24 – Hamden, CT @ Space Ballroom *
04/06/24 – Portland, ME @ Space Gallery *
04/07/24 – Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground Showcase Lounge *
04/08/24 – Rochester, NY @ Bug Jar *
04/10/24 – Ann Arbor, MI @ Blind Pig *
04/11/24 – Bloomington, IN @ Bishop *
04/12/24 – Iowa City, IA @ Gabe’s *
05/11/24 – Esch/Alzette, LU @ Out Of The Crowd Festival
05/14/24 – Porto, PT @ CCOP
05/15/24 – Lisbon, PT @ Musicbox
05/19/24 – Birmingham, UK @ Hare & Hounds
05/20/24 – Liverpool, UK @ Stockroom
05/21/24 – Leeds, UK @ Headrow House
05/22/24 – Glasgow, UK @ Broadcast
05/23/24 – Edinburgh, UK @ Sneaky Pete’s
05/24/24 – Manchester, UK @ New Century Hall All Dayer
05/25/24 – Bristol, UK @ Dot to Dot
05/26/24 – Nottingham, UK @ Dot to Dot
05/27/24 – London, UK @ Moth Club
05/29/24 – Tours, FR @ Oxford Pub
05/30/24 – Rennes, FR @ L’UBU
05/31/24 – Paris, FR @ Block Party
06/01/24 – Clermont-Ferrand, FR @ La Coopérative de Mai
06/05/24 – Antwerpen, BE @ Trix
06/06/24 – Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso
# Only God Forgives and Cootie Catcher support
* with Ratboys