As Australians, we had gotten used to a certain level of The Wombats in our lives. The British lads seemed to always be on our shores touring - it became a meme that they were honourary Australian citizens, sometimes touring twice a year - but in 2019 the trio took a little break, with singer Murph focusing on his side-project Love Fame Tragedy while the band's Dan and Tord worked on a project called Sunship Balloon. And then COVID hit this year, basically meaning they couldn't come back to tour here even if they wanted to.
Well, Chicago producer Whethan has gotten the guys out of hibernation on his brand new album, Fantasy, and frankly we can't thank him enough. The song is called Clouds and marries Whethan's crisp production with the Wombats storytelling we know and love. Perfect.
On that note, Fantasy is just chock-a-block full of features - Whethan's locked in Oliver Tree, K.Flay, grandson, The Front Bottoms, RL Grime and Grouplove for tracks on the eclectic 15-track debut album.
Whethan explained, "Fantasy is getting on a spaceship and teleporting anywhere your dreams can imagine. I wanted to make a project that was full of energy and artists that I'm inspired by. There was an underlying theme of alternative meets psychedelic dance music and I wanted to be able to blast every song at my shows or have it feel like you’re at a show when listening at home or in the car.
"I got to work with some of my favorite artists like RL Grime, Grouplove, The Wombats, bÜlow, and many more. I grew a lot while working on the album over the span of the last 3 years and you can hear it through the different styles and feelings on each track."
