Montreal quartet Prism Shores return with “Kid Gloves,” the lead single from their forthcoming album Softest Attack, due April 10, 2026 via Having Fun in Canada and Meritorio (worldwide). Serving as the album’s opening salvo, “Kid Gloves” bridges the band’s past and future: a frenetic, fuzz-heavy slice of noise pop that nods to classic indie pop melodicism while embracing a newly sharpened immediacy.
Musically, “Kid Gloves” is Prism Shores at their most overtly noise-pop, pairing a deceptively sweet, twee-leaning melody with excessive layers of blown-out guitar. The track draws a clear line from the band’s jangling roots toward the more hook-forward textures that define Softest Attack. Lyrically, it wrestles with diffidence and self-sabotage—cycles of hesitation, missteps, and the uneasy familiarity of old habits resurfacing.
Softest Attack arrives hot on the heels of 2025’s Out From Underneath, a breakthrough release that earned acclaim from Bandcamp Daily, Exclaim!, Stereogum, and Raven Sings The Blues, landed on multiple year-end lists, and led to the band’s first U.S. shows, festival appearances, and opening slots for established acts. Rather than retreating inward, Prism Shores used that momentum to take a decisive leap forward.
Recorded throughout 2025 at Studio St. Zo in Montreal, Softest Attack was produced and engineered by Scott “Monty” Munro, whose collaborative approach helped the band realize a densely ornamented guitar-pop record without sacrificing the interlocking jangle and melodic restraint that define their sound. The album was mixed by René Wilson at Value Sound and mastered by Mikey Young.
Across the record, Prism Shores—Jack MacKenzie, Ben Goss, Luke Pound, and Finn Dalbeth—expand their palette while remaining firmly rooted in indiepop tradition. Songs move fluidly between shambling C86-style jangle, fuzzed-out power pop, and shoegaze haze, while embracing a more direct, song-first approach. For the first time, all four members contribute lyrics and lead vocals, resulting in a broader emotional perspective and a more collaborative songwriting process.
Where Out From Underneath leaned into nocturnal atmospherics, Softest Attack foregrounds melody, rhythm, and immediacy. Guitar solos—if they can be called that—skronk and spiral rather than grandstand, harmonies are pushed to the front, and arrangements revel in excess without losing clarity. Drums and bass, tracked during a sweltering summer heatwave, give the album a taut, exasperated punch that underlines its themes of introspection, ennui, and self-doubt.
“Kid Gloves” stands as a thesis statement for the album: a song caught between restraint and release, jangling sweetness and amp-to-eleven maximalism. Softest Attack is Prism Shores’ most confident and cohesive statement yet—a valiant attempt to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with their “record-collector rock” influences while carving out a sound unmistakably their own.