Former Broken Family Band man Steven Adams is back with a new outfit, The French Drops, and a new album Virtue Signals – a sumptuously melodic slice of witty indie pop that barely conceals a boiling rage that simmers just beneath the surface of tracks like opening salvo ‘Bad Apples’. We asked Steven to be our guide through LP’s nine tracks:
PAUL
This is a breezy take on one of those sick little bedroom boys who monetize fascist propaganda. However dangerous they are, they’ll always be figures of fun.
LAST CENTURY’S MAN
How do you not pull a face when you take a selfie? That’s why everyone’s gone all pouty. This was originally conceived as a long, drawn-out space rock jam. It felt appropriate to shorten it, still with Julian Cope in mind.
IMPRINTED
“I love you” is the ultimate in virtue signalling. 
I wasn’t sure where I was going with this song until David and Daniel started playing the bass and drums. Then it wrote itself.
WOLVES IN THE ECHO CHAMBER
I’ve never been more sincere about a lyric than I am about the last part of this song: “If you’re lonely you should say so, instead of lashing out, instead of poisoning the well’. Took us about a year to settle on this arrangement, and we think it’s pretty good.
A JOKE
I stole the title for this from a song by my friend Kenton Loewen. It’s just bass, drums, piano and singing. I think there’s a metaphor in there.
FREE WILL
You with the flag, you look tired. This started life as a really bleak acoustic song. I tried to record it and ended up completely bummed out. Then I took it to the band and they did a fucking number on it.
DESIRE LINES
This is the most straightforward lyric I’ve written for ages and it’s also an example of virtue signalling. There’s a lot of love in this song. And a guitar solo.
Introduction by Paul Maps