Listen: New Deftones Jam “Hearts/Wires”

No listener could be blamed for focussing on the wrong parts of a new jam from Gore, the forthcoming eighth album by the Deftones. Part of your brain might absorb the song as usual, while another part is scanning it for what may have caused guitarist Stephen Carpenter to gently diss the album more than a month ago. And the third song that we’ve heard from Gore — it’s titled “Hearts/Wires” and it arrived Sunday on BBC radio — fully occupies both of those brain functions. It’s awesome (as usual) but it’s different (per Carpenter). It’s the first Deftones jam that a superfan may misidentify as the work of another band, maybe one of singer Chino Moreno’s side projects. Like the record’s title implies, Moreno channels new wave and new romantic; that’s not rare, nor are his harmonies, but the 16th notes are and so is the fluency with which his bandmates join his vibe — at least in the song’s first act. Crank it below (at 2:30 and 11:18).

The Deftones’ eighth album Gore is out Friday via Warner Bros. Pre-order here and here.