The sophomore full length from Brooklyn-based new wave band Nation of Language. Their 2020 debut Introduction, Presence is one of my favorites in recent memory and their new music promises to evolve that album's tight set of New Order-esque indie rock bangers into more stretched out compositions. TRACKLISTING: 1. In Manhattan 2. Across That Fine Line 3. Wounds of Love 4. Miranda 5. The Grey Commute 6. This Fractured Mind 7. Former Self 8. Whatever You Want 9. A Word & A Wave 10. They're Beckoning Check out first single “Across That Fine Line” below: “A Way Forward is an exploration of the band’s relationship to the music of the ’70s, through the lenses of Krautrock and early electronic music. We aimed to more deeply trace the roots of our sound, hoping to learn something from the early influences of our early influences. Experimenting with how they might be reinterpreted in our modern context—looking further backward to find a way forward. “We drew a lot from the steady locomotive rhythms of bands like Kraftwerk and Neu!, while also looking to less-propulsive electronic artists like Laurie Spiegel and Cluster. The goal was to have a record that felt like a journey, like being on a train that gets lost in a colorful fog, and then suddenly bursts through into different landscapes. “Thematically, some of those landscapes are familiar in their melancholy, but we also wanted to introduce celebration and joy in a way that hadn’t really been present in our previous album. Having these bursts of positivity felt like it gave the emotional low points more resonance, giving a stronger sense of emotional reality to the album overall.”
Found them through some DJ mix a while back and fell in love with that debut. This is one of my most anticipated.
This album is out tomorrow! Pretty stacked release day but this is what I'm most excited for, and the below review has me even more stoked. Album: Nation of Language - A Way Forward review - Secret Meeting
Record's phenomenal and this track-by-track goes DEEP. The Story Behind Every Song On Nation Of Language's New Album 'A Way Forward' The only track I'm not super sold on at this point is "Former Self" but I think the last few songs in a row really destroy.