Purity Ring Return with New Songs “many lives” and “part ii”: Stream

Purity Ring, the Canadian synthpop duo of Corin Roddick and Megan James, are back with their first new songs in two years. Listen to the two-part single “many lives” and “part ii” below.

The two new songs have been released via the fellowship, Purity Ring’s independent imprint. “many lives” features drum and bass elements alongside James’ ghostly vocals, with “part ii” serving as an outro complete with an ethereal choir, delicately plucked guitar, and glowing synths.

The music video was directed by Mike Sunday, features two avatar renderings of Roddick and James preparing for a hero’s quest. The video and appears to take inspiration from games like Final Fantasy X and NieR: Automata, per an accompanying press release.

“In a lot of ways, ‘many lives’ and ‘part ii’ is the epicenter of things we’ve been working on recently,” the duo shared. “It’s like the sun we’ve been orbiting around for the past few years. It feels pitch black and impossible, but also has in it all the things we can make out of that.”

They continued, “We’re just really excited about making music at this point in our career and we felt a kind of vastness and possibility when making this.”

Purity Ring’s last album, Womb, was released in 2020 via 4AD. That same year, they remixed Deftones’ “Knife Prty” for the 20th anniversary reissue of White Pony. This was followed by their 2022 EP, Graves, and the Black Dresses collaboration “Shines,” which dropped the following year.

Revisit Paolo Ragusa’s “Purity Ring’s Shrines Turns 10: How the Debut Laid a Masterful Foundation for the Future of Pop.”