Following their self-released fourth album, I Feel Alive, which, ironically, arrived a couple weeks into COVID-19 shutdowns in 2020, Montreal experimental pop darlings TOPS self-released a follow-up EP, then two of their members embarked on solo efforts. When the band reconvened for another album, they worked more collaboratively than in the past, eventually ending up with a conflicted group of songs with a dark side, touching on everything from the pursuit of happiness to self-destruction and from intimacy to toxic relationships and existential dread.
The quartet signed with Ghostly International for the release of the resulting Bury the Key, an album that also finds them slightly expanding their oddball sophisti-pop sound. After opening…