It's safe to say that a lot of the CL music team was pumped and present for Generationals' June 2013 appearance at New World Brewery. It was another rare chance to see a breaking indie-pop outfit up close and personal, and while the set, complete with a cover by The Cure, was as sweaty and whimsical as we all expected it to be, it did expose a minor flaw in the New Orleans-based duo's recorded output: sometimes the boys — Ted Joyner and Grant Widmer — don't always capture that live energy on their albums.

Not anymore.

Widmer and Joyner tapped producer Richard Swift (The Shins, Tennis, Gardens & Villa) to helm their new LP Alix (due September 16 via Polyvinyl Records), and our first taste of it — "Gold Silver Diamond" — is a summer mixtape staple that could get you through multiple seasons.

The choruses have that trademark Generationals airy quality, but the beats seem to a bit muscled up and pushed to the front and center of the track amidst high-octave piano stabs and a subtly desperate vibe that might be a result of the weather conditions during the song's genesis.

"The song was written on one of the coldest days of the year in New Orleans. I think the streets were even icing over a little, which rarely happens here," Joyner told Esquire, "[it's] about someone who thinks they’ve been very good at hiding their secrets or hiding who they are, but really they're not. It's a feel-good party track that is about emptiness, despair, and the meaningless futility of life."

The album artwork is above, and you can have a listen to the track below. Pre-order Alix here.

Read his 2016 intro letter and disclosures from 2022 and 2021. Ray Roa started freelancing for Creative Loafing Tampa in January 2011 and was hired as music editor in August 2016. He became Editor-In-Chief...