California singer-songwriter Ryan Pollie, who performs under the moniker Los Angeles Police Department, will release his self-titled debut album on September 2nd via Forged Artifacts. In anticipation, it’s streaming in full below.
Pollie previously played in Warm Weather, an LA-based pop-rock band known for its jaunty, upbeat tunes. During that same time, he began releasing solo material under the name Shara, an homage to his mother. As he experimented with increasingly fuller arrangements, Pollie decided he needed a name that sounded more like a full band, opting for his current tongue-in-cheek moniker.
Pollie wrote and recorded each of the record’s 11 tracks in his Hollywood home over the course of a single day. In a statement, Pollie said this process helped him overcome the misconception “that the music that I was making, which wasn’t recorded in a studio with a band, was illegitimate or not real for some reason.”
In an interview with Stereogum, Pollie explained that the album is about “this one girl that I was seeing for a summer. Basically all of the first seven songs on the album, minus ‘Enough Is Enough’, which is a party song. It kind of follows the same relationship and just different subject matter. But the same girl was in my head the whole time.”
The haphazard production approach definitely works in Pollie’s favor. The record’s lo-fi, bedroom pop aesthetic captures the desperation of his offbeat love story, reveling in all the creaks and echoes that often accompany romance. There’s a haze that lingers in the back of tracks like “She Came Through (Again)” and “The Only One” that add a sense of comfort to Pollie’s unobtrusive voice. This is music recorded in a bedroom that is made to be played by other lonesome bedroom dwellers the world over.
Pre-orders for the album are ongoing.
Los Angeles Police Department Tracklist:
01. Cave
02. Go Down
03. Enough Is Enough
04. The Only One
05. She Came Through (Again)
06. One Thousand Leagues
07. Seven Months
08. Interluden
09. Bishops Rd.
10. August 31
11. If You See My Woman
