Special Affections

First conceived in the summer of 2009 by Toronto-based multiplatform artist John O, Diamond Rings burst onto the scene with a series of singles and videos featuring green screen camera trickery, over the top choreography, and daring androgynous outfits and makeup. The videos received international praise from both the online media and fashionistas alike. The singles, pressed to limited edition vinyl, sold out in a matter of weeks and received critical praise including "Best New Music" honors from Pitchfork.

Although initially pegged in some corners as a novelty act, audiences soon began to identify with Diamond Rings' uniquely lyrical brand of pop songwriting and his overtly glamorous live sets. Showcasing real human emotion and honest vulnerability is rare enough for a 24-year-old let alone one who matches his eye shadow with his Air Force Ones while dancing about onstage with the reckless abandon of a teenager in the bathroom mirror. But there's something surprisingly mature shimmering beneath the glamour, hidden in John O's immediately iconic voice, and whip-smart lyrics.

Now Diamond Rings is finally settling down long enough to deliver a fully realized album, the much anticipated "Special Affections". In keeping with his predilection for confounding public expectation, the album dabbles in a wide range of styles and soundscapes. Spacey slow jams give way to aggressive guitar rock that leads seamlessly into shuddering club beats and soaring synth lines. Tying everything together are the heartfelt lyrical sentiments of a young artist interested in far more than getting his audience to "just dance.”

"I'd compare my music to the Starz on 54 cover of Gordon Lightfoot's ‘If You Could Read My Mind’ that they did for the soundtrack to the movie Studio 54," John O says, adding, "I do not believe that there needs to be a disconnect between popular music and lyrical honesty."

Diamond Rings - You & Me 7"

Diamond Rings is pleased to announce that he will be rounding out an incredible year by supporting Junior Boys on a slew of European tour dates kicking off in Stockholm on November 18th. In addition to the tour, Diamond Rings’ critically acclaimed debut full-length Special Affections will be available in Europe on November 1st courtesy of Astralwerks.

Diamond Rings will also release a limited edition 7” featuring the choice Special Affections cut You & Me on the A-Side. The flip side sees John O apply his signature danceable interpretation to Teenage Fanclub’s Mellow Doubt. The digital version is already available on iTunes in Europe and North America, with the vinyl available on the European tour and in Canada as of November 29 via Secret City.

Listen To O’Regan’s cover of Teenage Fanclub’s “Mellow Doubt” here courtesy of Pitchfork.

NOW Toronto interviews director of Diamond Rings new video, "It's Not My Party"

"I remember at the end of the night as John was desperately trying to hail a cab, a man came up to me and asked “Are you with her?” I said “Yes - she’s wasted and it’s time for me to take her home.”"

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Diamond Rings at Vancouver's Biltmore Cabaret on Backstage Rider

"Diamond Rings is equal parts neon bright colours and gangly tree-limbs, smeared lipstick and a great shaved head, amazing sweet lyrics and Casiotone overload."

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Diamond Rings' LA Show Review on One Thirty BPM

"Sure, we get countless excellent shows in Los Angeles. Hell, we even got at least three last weekend. But, Diamond Rings brought something special and memorable to the table"

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Diamond Rings on Daytrotter

"The songs, when they are bare and shivering as they are here, with stark instrumentation - accompaniment from a single guitar pulled down from the studio wall or the upright piano in the corner - are bleeding and pulsing examples of hypersensitivity and of a narrator who has been to some dark places."

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Diamond Rings on the SPIN blog

"Diamond Rings’ debut, Special Affections, has four or five of the catchiest choruses I’ve heard this year... some seriously well-crafted, catchy music."

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Diamond Rings on KEXP Song of the Day

"irresistible"

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Special Affections Pitchfork Review (8.2)

"But as fascinating as it is to hear an indie rock artist step outside of his comfort zone, both musically and emotionally, Special Affections' skeletal electro-pop sketches routinely fortify into full-blooded anthemic choruses that make O'Regan's liberation your own. ... an exemplary model of how one can live out blinged-out fantasies on a cubic zirconia budget."

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Diamond Rings Exclaim! Cover Story

"The transformation from John O'Regan of the D'Urbervilles to Diamond Rings was a shock for most, to say the least. His style is equal parts Bowie circa Aladdin Sane, Retro Junk and Foot Locker; his music borrows from Arthur Russell, Handsome Furs, Peaches and Grace Jones, and his embrace of the music video is as shrewd as Michael Jackson, Madonna and Lady Gaga before him ― albeit on a shoestring budget."

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Special Affections Austin Town Hall Review

"an album to spin over and over and over again"

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