First Watch: Poliça, 'Lime Habit'

"Like many major U.S. cities, Minneapolis has as a tumultuous and divided past, with tales of gangsters, government corruption, racism and economic injustice, writes NPR's Robin Hilton.

It's a bleak history both mocked and memorialized in a popular tag painted on buildings and grain elevators around the city that reads, "United Crushers," a reference to the countless dreams that have been crushed in Minneapolis.

United Crushers is also the name of and inspiration for a new album from the Minneapolis-based band Poliça. The group's third full-length release, it's a transfixing love letter to Poliça's hometown that recalls the city's troubled history. The first taste we're getting of the record is a thumping synth jam called "Lime Habit."

"Never in the corner is the luck of life," laments frontwoman Channy Leaneagh. "So get out of the corner and you see up higher, but you're never in style."

"These lyrics are the most diary like of any of the other songs on United Crushers," Leaneagh tells us via email. "It's all observations on my mode of operation and how it affects where I go. I'm speaking to myself mostly.

"United Crushers is Poliça's first new music since 2013's Shulamith. It's due out March 4, 2016.