Canada's post-punk/darkwave act Jay Draper & The Subterraneans has released its long-awaited second album, Dollhouse. This dollhouse is no Barbie dreamhouse, though. Its walls house stories of drama, sorrow, and existential dread. Enter at your own risk.

A showcase of Draper's penchant for stories of tragic figures, Dollhouse is an exploration of the outer limits of human existence. An artificial lover, built to please, rebels against her master with an impulse to murder, then ponders her place in the world and the implications of her new freedom. A damned soul makes a home out of his place in hell and finds love, or is it just another twist to his eternal torment? A man finds himself at the borderland between somewhere and nowhere, being someone and no one, where he is seduced at every turn by alcohol, lust, and an urge to drown in his disillusionment. Dollhouse finds Draper working with a host of guest musicians and producers, both old and new, from fellow The Scarlet Fever band members and collaborators, like Cat Samuels (also of L'autre Dame) and drummer Chris Woodacre, to new allies like producers and songwriters Chris Jensen of Poor Violet and Ursule Marion of goth duo SU.

In 2018, Toronto singer/songwriter Jay Draper of The Scarlet Fever joined forces with former Amy's Arms guitarist and touring bassist for Sex Gang Children, Justin Minister, to form the studio side project Jay Draper & The Subterraneans. After toiling away in the underground studios of Toronto for what felt like aeons and many collaborations with talented guest musicians for the local scene, The Subterraneans finally emerged from the depths to birth their primordial statement, Behind The Night (2021). Since the release of Behind The Night, Draper has gone his own way with the project and released a couple of singles - including an animated music video for the Jean-Paul Sartre-in spired song, "No Exit", as well as his distortion of the classic 1984 pop song, "Self Control" (as popularised by Laura Branigan) - while working little by little on his next full-length statement. Well, that statement is finally here; welcome to Dollhouse. Link