The Temper Trap achieved great success with ‘Sweet Device’, one of the singles of presentation of ‘Conditions’ (2010), their debut album. One of those “crossover” successes of indie pop that fell especially in British and European lists, and that has demonstrated a surprising longevity: today adds about 800 million streamings only on Spotify.
‘Sweet Device’ also turned the Australian band led by Dougy Mandagi into a clear “One Hit Wonder” of the current century. As much as the label, their numbers speak for themselves. Except for a minor hit such as ‘Trembling Hands’ or ‘Fall Together’, his two following albums, ‘The Temper Trap’ (2012) and ‘Thick As Thieves’ (2016), went unnoticed.
The Temper Trap have not stopped playing, for example in Spain, but almost a decade ago they do not launch new material. These days, the quintet has surprised publishing two of the best songs of his career, the percussive and distorted ‘Lucky Dimes’ and the ‘Giving Up Air’ festival. They will be presumably part of a new album that is coming.
If ‘Lucky Dimes’ was the surprising return of a group that has not published new material in nine years, ‘Giving Up Air’ is the potential Hymn Festival that must happen to ‘Sweet Device’ in the canon of The Temper Trap classics. Both productions are cut by the same pattern, and Dougy Mandagi’s falsetto shines again, but in ‘Giving Up Air’ the pulse accelerates, energy overflows and emotions explode in the skin.
‘Giving Up Air’ is a song about the duel, as Dougy explained in an official note, but their emotional energy and strength refer nostalgically to the indie of 2010s. Of course, The Temper Trap shows again that they always possessed a more delicate and melodic imprint, evident both in ‘Sweet Device’ and in ‘Giving Up Air’.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dubtl_-_v0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iabwrh_5qyu
