Like That

About the album

Melbourne’s Cool Sounds release new album Like That, their first for Chapter Music.

Like That is a transformative album. Cool Sounds’ usual jangle-pop sparkle has been supercharged by a disco-glam stomp, making for their most immediate, irresistible record yet. Like That combines wry, acerbic lyrics with bright, unstoppable pop-funk, finding a sweet spot between Ian Dury & the Blockheads, Hot Chip and 80s 12” mixes by Francois K.

Cool Sounds polymath Dainis Lacey also steps out from behind a band facade on Like That. He plays almost everything on the record, with a little help from friends including multi- instrumentalist Dylan Young, saxophonist Pierce Morton and German-born vocalist Ambrin Hasnain (with whom Dainis also plays in Partner Look, signed to US label Trouble In Mind). Like That affirms that Dainis Lacey is Cool Sounds, and Cool Sounds is Dainis Lacey.

Past albums have moved deftly through indie-rock, slick 80s pop and wistful alt-country, with a lightness of touch that disguises Lacey’s sardonic, perceptive songwriting. 2019’s Cactus Country was nominated for an Australian Independent Record Label Award, and they have been featured in the Guardian, Line Of Best Fit, NME and elsewhere.

On stage the project can swell up to a six person behemoth. Cool Sounds toured Europe in 2015 and 2019 and 2022. In Australia they tour tirelessly, playing regional towns as often as urban metropolises.