Diners Find “The Power” in a New Sound on Lead Single from New Album, ‘Domino’

Los Angeles-via-Phoenix singer-songwriter Blue Broderick, who records and performs as Diners, has announced her seventh full-length and shared its first single ahead of a fall U.S. tour that includes multiple Sunshine State shows.

Produced by Mo Troper (a guitar-pop wizard in his own right) and due out Aug. 18 on Bar/None Records, the new LP’s first preview arrived Tuesday in the form of its sunny centerpiece, “The Power,” plus a music video (dir. Samantha Sutcliffe​​). Domino is the first Diners record since 2022’s Four Wheels and the Truth — and what a difference a year can make. After relocating to L.A. and coming out as transgender, Broderick embraced creative evolution, giving her prior output’s ‘70s mellow a power-pop punch-up. Recorded by Troper at Portland, Oregon’s Trash Treasury recording studio, and mixed and mastered by hard-rock veteran Jack Shirley, the resulting album maintains Broderick’s melodic knack even as it wrenches the volume knob.

On Four Wheels tracks like “Brain Song” and “Tried to Try,” Broderick sounded lost, persevering through a darkness beyond her understanding while still managing a smile. But on “The Power,” the sun shines brightly on both Broderick’s music and lyrics alike: Backed by jangly guitars and Troper’s mule-kick drums, she acknowledges life’s difficulties (“All across the board, pieces moving farther / Than they were before, sand becoming finer”), but stands firm in her belief that “You can ask for more, something you can honor / Eat the apple core, if you really wanna.” In the song’s sticky choruses, Broderick and Troper harmonize, “It ain’t too late to understand, too late to try / Too late to recognize the power that’s inside.”

• Stream “The Power“

“There’s a saying among my friends from Phoenix about ‘eating the whole apple’ and it has to do with making the most out of life,” Broderick explains in a statement. “‘The Power’ is about eating the whole apple. This song is meant to ward off anxious thoughts with the power of scuzzy guitars and positive affirmations.”

Diners heads out on a U.S. tour this fall to mark the release of Domino, starting with an L.A. release show on Aug. 18. The band takes their new sound to Atlanta, Orlando and Tampa in mid-September (tickets here), amid a dozen-ish-date run in support of Chris Farren.

You can hear new music from Diners, as well as local, regional, national and international artists on our music discovery station The Independent 89.9 HD4. And you can follow our Fresh Squeeze playlist on Spotify to stream all the best new music, updated every month.