Perennial - "Hippolyta!"

For their upcoming release, Perennial are revisiting some of the songs off The Symmetry of Autumn Leaves and updating them to fit their more 2023 sound. The latest we can check out is "Hippolyta!" The original is definitely a personal favorite of theirs, so I was curious to hear what an updated version would sound like. Turns out the reconfigured "Hippolyta!" sounds a lot like the original. It's still the furious noise punk we love about Perennial, just slightly softened a bit. It's a little more polished, like what you'd expect from a band six years later on in their existence. It still has the DIY punk vibe of the original, so no worries there. Perennial are in the midst of an interesting experiment of updating classics, and we can't wait to hear the full result.

You can listen to the new version of "Hippolyta!" below. The Leaves of Autumn Symmetry is due out September 1, and is available for pre-order through Bandcamp. For more on Perennial, check out the band on Twitter and Instagram.

Perennial - "Dissolver"

"Dissolver" isn't exactly a new song in the world of Perennial, but this version certainly is. Since releasing The Symmetry of Autumn Leaves back in 2017, the New England band's sound has morphed, and the songs on the album have come to sound different from the recorded versions. Because of that, Perennial have reworked five songs from their debut album, and the first one we can hear is "Dissolver." As much as I love the original version, this current one does sound much more like 2023 Perennial. This new version is somehow more raw and more melodic than the original did, but if you know Perennial, that checks out perfectly. I'm not typically a huge fan of bands redoing their own songs, but I'm fully on board for this one. 

Guitarist Chad Jewett says of the reworked songs:

“Our process was to first capture the energetic heartbeat of each of these songs, and then to immediately look for ways to make them more compelling as headphone experiences. We really took time to cut these songs up into collage material and see what new angles we could find: splashing paint on them, replacing instruments and making the whole thing a bit more modernist, a bit more impressionistic”.

You can listen to the new version of "Dissolver" below. The Leaves of Autumn Symmetry is due out as a 7" and an EP that is due out September 1. You can pre-order a copy here. For more on Perennial, check out the band on Instagram and Twitter.