Belgian singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Maarten Delvodere is the co-lead vocalist and one-half of the songwriting team behind the acclaimed JOVM mainstay outfit Balthazar — and he’s the creative mastermind behind the equally acclaimed JOVM mainstay project Warhaus.
Devoldere’s fifth Warhaus album The Donkey is slated for a January 15, 2027 release through Play It Again Sam. The Donkey is reportedly Belvedere’s most raw and instinctive Warhuas effort of his career to date. As the backstory to the album goes: Delvodere was at home with his girlfriend and his dog, happy, calm and super zen. Nothing but peace and quiet in his life. But an overdose of peace of mind can be dangerous too; that’s how much energy came pouring out when he started writing the material which would eventually comprise The Donkey.
The filter was gone, the anesthetic had worn off and suddenly he wanted something else — something rawer, something perhaps more real? For years, he had churned out a collection of dandyish pop with each song better than the last with an almost insulting ease. So he wondered: what if he threw those beautiful, golden melodies out the window and wrought the primal urges lurking inside his chest?
The Donkey will include the previously released “The Baby” and “Simple Pleasures,” as well as the album’s third and latests single “One Day.” “One Day” is a swaggering, industrial-leaning banger, built around tweeter and woofer rattling beats, twinkling keys, and arpeggiated synth breaks beneath Devoldere’s punchy yet melodic delivery. It may arguably be the most invigorated and primal tune of Devoldere’s growing catalog. At it score, the song sees the JOVM mainstay playing with contrasting moods. pairing the familiar tropes and language of a love song with an uneasy, tense soundscape.
Devoldere explains that “I wanted the band to sound like a DJ. I wanted the love song to sound like a threat.”
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