New Audio: Sweeping Promises Returns with Punchy and Defiant “Accent”

Lawrence, KS-based duo and JOVM mainstays Sweeping Promises — Lira Mondal (vocals, bass, production) and Caufield Schnug (guitar, drums, production) — will be releasing their highly anticipated third album, You Say I Romanticize August 14, 2026 through Sub Pop.

Recorded over an 18-month period, You Say I Romanticize is a tribute to the chaos of creation and collaboration under shifting circumstances. Mondal and Schung found and tested themselves in their combination tour house and recording studio annually working on dozens of albums by other bands, hosting tour stops, planning shows and the like. After an immerseive process of traking adn whittling down YSIR demos and carving out an idiosyncratic chamber recording method for the album’s deliberate and international wall-of-sound appraoch, the duo brought in touring drummer Spenser Gralla to play the album’s matreial as the band would on stage. 

The album’s frenzied and passionate sound shines most in Modal’s vocal perforamnce. Where you might have heard a growl here and there on certain previously released Sweeping Promises trcks, the band’s frontwoman shouts, roars, hits tricky notes all over the place and shreds her throat throughout the album’s run time.

YSIR takes the art-by-any-means-necessary ethos that Mondal and Schung have firmly established throughout their careers and turns the prompt upside down, landing on a personality epidemic that manifests across the album’s ten songs.

The JOVM mainstays’ third album will include the previously released “Cocoon,” and its third and latest single “Accent.” Built around an angular and propulsive bass line, rapid-fire four-on-the-floor and slashing guitar attack beneath Mondal’s croon expressing seething frustration, “Accent” is a punchy and defiant tune that to my ears channels a blend of Blondie’s “One Way or Another” and Joy Division while attacking a deeply familiar sentiment for anyone who’s been a dutiful worker bee.

The band describes “Accent” as a “cacophony of routine, the plight of a lowly drone who dreams of breaking out of an instinct-born & increasingly restrictive flight path. It’s got a flapping, insectoid rhythm, which is misery to play. We call it ‘cicadence.’ It’s a succession of bee-sting realizations from an individual dangerously at risk of becoming feral, independent, an outsider.”

The band will be embarking on a lengthy North American headlining tour that includes two New York area dates — November 10, 2026 at Night Club 101 and November 11, 2026 at Baby’s All Right. Check out the rest of the tour dates below. 

SWEEPING PROMISES YOU SAY I ROMANTICIZE 
NORTH AMERICAN HEADLINE TOUR
Wed. Sep. 09 – Oklahoma City, OK – Resonant Head
Thu. Sep. 10 – Denton, TX – Rubber Gloves
Fri. Sep. 11 – Austin, TX – LEVITATION
Sat. Sep. 12 – San Antonio, TX – Paper Tiger
Tue. Sep. 15 – Phoenix, AZ – Rebel Lounge
Wed. Sep. 16 – San Diego, CA – Casbah
Thu. Sep. 17 – Los Angeles, CA – Sid the Cat Auditorium
Fri. Sep. 18 – San Francisco, CA – Rickshaw Stop
Sun. Sep. 20 – Portland, OR – Mississippi Studios
Tue. Sep. 22 – Vancouver, BC – Fox Cabaret
Wed. Sep. 23 – Seattle, WA – Baba Yaga
Fri. Sep. 25 – Boise, ID – Shrine Social Club Basement
Sat. Sep. 26 – Salt Lake City, UT – The DLC at Quarters
Sun. Sep. 27 – Denver, CO – Hi-Dive
Tue. Sep. 29 – Lawrence, KS – White Schoolhouse (NEWLY ANNOUNCED SHOW)
 
Tue. Oct. 27 – Omaha, NE – Slowdown
Wed. Oct. 28 – St Paul, MN – Turf Club
Thu. Oct 29 –  Milwaukee, WI – Cactus Club
Fri. Oct. 30 – Chicago, IL – Empty Bottle
Sat. Oct. 31 – Detroit, MI – Lager House
Tue. Nov. 03 – Toronto, ON – Monarch
Wed. Nov. 04 – Montreal, QC – La Sala Rossa
Thu. Nov. 05 – Boston, MA – Deep Cuts
Fri. Nov. 06 – Boston, MA – Deep Cuts
Sun. Nov. 08 – Troy, NY – No Fun
Tue. Nov. 10 – New York, NY – Night Club 101
Wed. Nov. 11 – Brooklyn, NY – Baby’s All Right
Thu. Nov. 12 – Philadelphia, PA – First Unitarian Church
Fri. Nov. 13 – Washington, DC – Union Stage
Sat. Nov. 14 – Richmond, VA – Cobra Cabana
Mon. Nov. 16 – Durham, NC – The Pinhook
Tue. Nov. 17 – Atlanta, GA – The Masquerade – Purgatory
Wed. Nov. 18 – Nashville, TN – DRKMTTR

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