TOPS

The Arc of TOPS

The pivots — what forced TOPS to reinvent.

1. 01

   The Montreal Warehouse Tape Run

   Carriere and Penny pulled out of their previous project's ashes and hit the Montreal loft circuit with cheap tape gear and strict melodic discipline. Cutting Tender Opposites and Picture You Staring back-to-back, they locked into a distinct setup of chorus-pedal rhythm guitar, tape-saturated cymbals, and breathy leads. It caught the ear of the DIY scene because it rejected aggressive indie distortion in favor of silky, unapologetic radio pop hooks. You hear it immediately in the low-slung, deadened drum thuds and penny-pinching room ambiance.

2. 02

   Glendale Sun and Studio Expansion

   Moving their tracking operation to a mini-mansion in Glendale, California forced the band out of damp Canadian isolation for Sugar at the Gate. The room acoustics changed the bottom end entirely, turning Fleck's drums bone-dry and letting Penny's vocals push right up against the grille of the mic. Marci settled into the keyboard chair, layering rich electric pianos that balanced Carriere's increasingly slick guitar voicings. The songs traded tape murk for breezy West Coast sheen, without ditching the melancholy underneath.

3. 03

   The Tightened Groove Self-Release

   Hitting the start of the 2020s with I Feel Alive, they took total control of their operation by running their own imprint, Musique TOPS. The pacing jumped up a gear into bouncy, buoyant pop arrangements where the rhythm tracks snap with immediate, live-in-the-room presence. They tightened up the track lengths on Empty Seats and Bury the Key, leaning into snappy disco basslines and bright synth pulses. It is the sound of a band stripped of indie reservations, playing straight-up pop music because they know their chops can carry it.

Influences

• Fleetwood Mac — Penny and Carriere have consistently cited the Buckingham-Nicks era songwriting dynamic in interviews regarding their tight, mid-tempo pacing. You hear it all over Carriere's dry, crystalline guitar picking and Penny's layered vocal harmonies. They took the Fleetwood Mac blueprint and shrunk it down to a four-track scale.
• Prefab Sprout — Paddy McAloon's sophisticated, chord-heavy songwriting is an explicit touchstone for TOPS's chord progressions. The chord changes across tracks like 'Way to Be Loved' dodge standard pop formulas in favor of clever, jazz-adjacent voicings. It is unapologetic, brainy pop built on pristine melodic hooks.
• Sade — Penny has regularly referenced Sade Adu's cool restraint and minimal vocal phrasing as an anchor for her own style. The breathy, close-mic delivery and smooth rhythm tracks avoid theatrical belts, keeping the energy hushed and direct. Fleck's disciplined, understated snare accents mirror the exact quiet-storm minimalism of Stuart Matthewman's arrangements.
• Steely Dan — Carriere has explicitly noted Becker and Fagen's studio perfectionism and ironic lyrical bite as heavy personal inspirations. You catch it in his clean, pinpoint solos and the band's obsession with pristine rhythm section pocketing. They swipe the Dan's slick chord inversions without turning it into bloated stadium jazz-rock.
• Cocteau Twins — Robin Guthrie's atmospheric chorus-drenched guitar textures and Elizabeth Fraser's ethereal vocal spaces were foundational for TOPS's early Montreal lo-fi roots. On Tender Opposites, the guitars swim in modulated shimmer while the voice hangs suspended in reverb over cheap drum patterns. It gave their early soft-pop songs an essential undercurrent of dreampop fog.