Tag: punk rock

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Toronto’s Wine Lips Shares Punchy “If You Don’t Know”

Over the past decade, the Toronto-based psych punk outfit Wine Lips — currently Cam Hilborn (vocals, guitar), Aurora Evans (drums), Jordan Sosensky (guitar) and Charlie Weare (bass) — have quietly become one of their homeland’s most successful indie acts: They’ve amassed over 50 million Spotify streams, while receiving praise from Iggy Pop on BBC Radio and landing material on film, television and video games. Adding to a growing globally recognized profile, the Toronto-based quartet have relentlessly toured a sweat-soaked, high energy live show across North America, the European Union, the UK, Hong Kong and China while sharing stages with the likes of Frankie and the Witch Fingers and Death From Above 1979. Throughout their history, the Canadian punk rockers have carved their own lane, where fuzz pedals, frantic energy and razor-sharp songwriting coexist in a perfect balance.

Wine Lips’ fifth album, TV Dinner was released last Friday through Stomp Records. Drawing from an The Hives, Osees, Frankie and the Witch Fingers, Bad Nerves and the melodic punch of Nirvana at their most immediate, the new album may arguably be their most observant, strangely relatable and complete statement to date while still rooted in their signature blend of garage punk, blown-out psychedelia and fuzzy rock.

TV Dinner superficially features 13 adrenaline-fueled, loud, hook-driven rock songs. But if you deeper, the album offers a snapshot of what it feels like to live right now in our dystopian, late-stage capitalist hellscape: Everyone and their mom and cousin are selling shortcuts. Everyone is an expert. Your phone constantly pings with updates. Your rent and grocery bills rocket skyward while the apartments somehow get smaller. Dopamine arrives in short bursts through nicotine, sugar, social media feeds, alcohol, dreams of escaping the rat race and whatever else gets you through another day. Somewhere between the doomscroll, another trip to the doctor, another dead-end job, and another microwaved meal, Cam Hilborn found thirteen songs hiding in plain sight. The songs are written from the perspective from someone who’s neck deep int the shit, like everyone else, desperately trying to make sense of a mad, mad, mad world.

Recorded at London Ontario‘s The Sugar Shack with longtime collaborator Simon Larochette, the new album captures the band trusting instinct over perfection. Mistake sand happy accidents stayed. So did strange noises. They left the edges and roughness because they believe that’s where the life lives. The album also sees the band’s Aurora Evens taking up lead vocal duties on album track “Projector.”

The album’s latest single “If You Don’t Know” is a punchy and anthemic blend of garage punk, glam rock and pub rock, showcasing the band’s unerring knack for crafting catchy hooks paired with fuzzy power chord-driven. shout- along-with-an upraised-beer-in-hand choruses. Arguably the most direct, in-your-face ripper the band has released to date, the song features a narrator wrestling with something familiar to me — and to most of y’all — growing older. Yes, there’s the tacit realization that time races by, but it’s rooted in something far deeper — that age is supposed to come with some earned wisdom, some sort of forward progression and a shit ton of nostalgia. But what if there isn’t much wisdom and no real forward progression? Is the dream of being a rock god childish? Who the fuck really knows?

The accompanying video follows a man-child living out his fantasy of being a superhero in a very real world, including his seemingly real super powers, which help him save lives and do good.

The band are currently in the middle of a rather extensive European tour. They’ll tour across North America to close out 2026 and their North American tour includes a December 4, 2026 stop at Warsaw. Check out the tour dates below.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 74th Birthday, Joe Strummer!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 74th anniversary of the birth of The Clash’s Joe Strummer.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Brighton’s Split Dogs Shares Bruising and Anthemic “Suffer”

Deriving their name from the classic zombie film Return of the Living Dead, Brighton, UK-based punks Split Dogs — founding duo and romantic couple Harry Atkins (vocals) (they/them) and Mil Martinez (guitar) (he/him), along with Chris Hugall (drums) (he/him) and Suez Boyle (bass) (she/her) — can trace their origins back to 2015: The band’s founding members had the idea to start a band fueled by their frustration over music they saw as soulless and commodified product made to sell the listener and fans more useless shit.

As a youngster in South London, Mil Martinez would hear Status Quo, Bachman-Turner Overdrive and Dire Straits on the car radio while his father drove him to school. At home, he would invade his older brother’s record collection, which leaned towards punk and heavy metal. In the UK’s Black Country, Harry Atkins’ mother instilled a love of Northern Soul, Slade and rock ‘n roll, with stories of nights out at Club Lafayette and family singalongs at home. According to Martinez, “Our sound is a culmination of all those early influences and, to be honest, it really shows.”

Split Dogs officially appeared on the scene in 2022. Suez Boyle, a prominent figure in the queer punk scene, best known for her work with The Walking Abortions joined the band in 2023. Up until that point, Chris Hugall, an old friend of Martinez and a former member of ska punks Mouthwash, an act that was once signed on Rancid‘s Hellcat Records, helped design the band’s artwork. Hugall joined the band full-time last year, cementing the band’s current lineup. 

The quartet quickly won over Bristol’s accepting and tolerant punk scene, a scene that has always welcomed LGBQT+ folks and marginalized people, with raucous live shows featuring infectious lyrics. As word spread, the gigs increased and in short order, the Brighton-based punk outfit was playing sold-out rooms across the European Union, which caught the attention of British label Venn Records. 

The Brighton-based quartet released their Peter Miles-produced sophomore effort, Here to Destroy last year. Recorded over a breakneck three day session at Middle Farm Studios, the album, which featured album track “Lafayette” was laid straight to a 16-track reel-to-reel tape machine without autotune, effects pedals, and computers. Adding to the visceral authenticity of the recording, the album’s material was recored with Atkins singing along in a vocal booth. No cutting and pasting on a program. And it meant that everyone had to nail their takes. “It was a blast!” Split Dogs’ Martinez says. “We fully immersed ourselves, sleeping in a small apartment below the studio, cooking meals and listening to Pete’s extensive record collection.” 

The quartet’s third album, Nice N’ Rough is slated for a September 25, 2026 release through Venn Records. Its predecessor, Here To Destroy was recorded while the band’s then-new lineup was still feeling their way while Mil and Harry were in the midst of early parenthood; however, Nice N’ Rough is a bolder, brassier, even more fun effort. The new ingredients are “confidence and time,” says the band’s Mil Martinez. “We’ve not lost what we were, but we’ve evolved and tightened the screws, cleaned it up, made it a little slicker. The songs are more thought-out and everyone’s had a hand in them.” The album’s lyrics are brutal and funny, continuing a long-held and beloved rock ‘n’ roll tradition.

“Rock’n’roll’s meant to be fun, isn’t it?” Mil says. “There aren’t enough bands doing that OTT [“over the top”], tongue-in-cheek thing. When I was younger, I wanted to seem cooler and tougher than I was. Now, I don’t care what people think of me, so I wear my heart on my sleeve. We’re quite shameless, really.” 

Nice N’ Rough’s latest single “Suffer” is a bruising, arena rock ripper that seemingly channels Highway to Hell-era AC/DC, Ace of Spades-era Motörhead, Joan Jett and JOVM mainstays Amyl and the Sniffers. But beneath the power chord driven riffs and the rousingly anthemic hooks and choruses is a lived-in emotional and psychological turmoil. The result is a song that showcases a band that can deftly pair old school OTT rock riffs and bombast with deeply heartfelt, earnest lyricism.

Fittingly the accompanying video for “Suffer” features some hilarious rock tropes: The lead guitarist playing his explosive riffs as lightning bolts explode around him. Skulls, skulls and more skulls. The band playing the song in an eerie graveyard and more. It’s a bit of goofy fun.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 28th Birthday, Genesis Owusu!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates JOVM mainstay Genesis Owusu’s 28th birthday.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 67th Birthday, Belinda Carlisle!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Belinda Carlisle’s 67th birthday.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Jet Black Berries Share Swaggering, Glam Rock-Inspired “RocketFire Sex66”

Back in the late 1970s, Rochester, NY — yes, Rochester — was the unlikely home to a busy and fiercely creative, underground punk and New Wave scene. Among the most vitals to emerge from the Rochester scene was New Math, a band that gradually evolved from wiry, high-energy power pop to darker cinematic post-punk that saw them stand apart from their peers.

Formed in 1976, New Math’s core lineup featured Kevin Patrick (vocals), Gary Trainer (bass), Chris Yokel (guitar), Roy Stein (drums) and Mark Schwartz (keys). “Kevin (Patrick) was trading records from London,” Gary Trainer recalls. ““Stuff like Sex Pistols and Eddie and the Hot Rods. Kevin was friends with Joey Ramone and Monty, who is their road manager. When Dee Dee left, they were trying out bass players. So I flew to New York, and I tried out. I did a whole set with Joey, but I didn’t get the gig. When Kevin and I put this band together, we wanted to be in the middle of this new wave of music that was happening.”

The original lineup officially only released one song “Die Trying.”

Although local clubs, like The Penny Arcade didn’t want wild punk bands as much as Foreigner over bands, the band played some memorable shows in the area, including a 1979 show opening for John Cale and The Now. After playing a show at The Penny Arcade in which the band’s Kevin Patrick got hit in the face with a raw egg, New Math never played the room again. However, they quickly found themselves opening for Ramones, The Damned, Human Switchboard and The Cramps at some of the city’s most renowned clubs at the time — The Triangle Theatre, The Orange Monkey, and Scourgie’s, Rochester’s version of Max’s Kansas City and CBGB’s. By the tail end of the 1970s. New Math lit a spark in a local scene that featured The Chesterfield Kings, Personal Effects and The Cliches.

At the start of the 1980s Patrick had become fascinated by The Cramps and The Psychedelic Furs. The band’s debut EP, 1981’s They Walk Among You saw the band’s sound shifting from power pop to primal, focused post-punk, and was part of a growing horror punk movement that included The Cramps, 45 Grave and Misfits, who would release their studio albums debut, Walk Among Us the following year. They Walk Among You EP was influenced by Invasion of the Body Snatchers, William S. Burroughs’ Nova Express. EP track “Garden of Delight” features lyrics that the band would take their new name from, Jet Black Berries. More on the band’s name change a bit later, because I don’t want to jump ahead too far, and there’s a story here. Let’s get back to it, right?

“Roky Erickson was writing all these songs about old horror movies,” says Trainer, “and I started thinking about songwriting in this different way. His album Evil One (1980) and songs like ‘I Think of Demons’ reminded me of subversive things like [Kenneth Anger’s short film] Invocation of My Demon Brother, which all felt dangerous. They Walk Among You is symbolic of being in a fascist place where your neighbors are turning on you.”

By 1984, New Math had honed a moodier style informed by American gothic imagery surrealism and haunted psychedelia. The band’s self-produced, eight-song full-length debut, Gardens was released through Brain Eater Records, and came off the heels of a tour opening for The Psychedelic Furs. The Aleister Crowley-inspired “Love Under Will” caught enough attention to be included on The Return of the Living Dead soundtrack — under the band’s new name, Jet Black Berries. Tragically, the album never got a chance: Just as the album was about to ship, the label folded. “Steve Pross was the president of Brain Eater Records,” Trainer recalls, “but he moved to California and started working for Enigma. He was in charge of putting out the Return to the Living Dead soundtrack, and he wanted us on it. So he took ‘Love Under Will’ and stuck it on the soundtrack. He loved us, and took us with him. We were on some Enigma compilations that were pretty popular as well.”

The band rebranded as Jet Black Berries, closing the door on the New Math era, informed by their moving beyond the limits of punk rock and New Wave. They developed a darker, stranger and more ambitious sound and approach drawing from country rock, rockabilly, Western balladry, psych punk and beat-inspired storytelling. And it also helped that as Trainer jokes, “We always hated the name [New Math].” He adds, “We’d gone down to New York to record some songs, trying to get a deal with Columbia. That didn’t happen. So we came back home kinda depressed, wanting to change direction. I had the idea for Sundown on Venus by this time. We just decided to come up with another name and record Sundown, and go in a different direction.”

Recorded during a breakneck two day session in August 1984, Sundown on Venus was released by Enigma/Pink Dust. The album and the band were often categorized in cowpunk movement and was also loosely associated with the 80s Paisley Underground psych scene, but the band constantly defied easy categorization. They were much darker, heavier and more raw than many of their roots rock peers. The album creates a desert noir world of dead planets, outlaw romance and post-punk pulse. “When we recorded Sundown with money from Enigma, we weren’t in control,” says Trainer. “It was a double-record release with lots of covers.”

Their sophomore album, 1986’s Desperate Fires saw the band continuing their unique blend of cowpunk, psychobilly and Paisley Underground, eventually earning a Best Album nomination at that year’s New York Music Awards.

1988’s Animal Necessity was arguably their most polished effort, and it turned out to be the last album of the band’s initial run together. Patrick was living in New York. The band continued to live and write in Rochester, with Trainer moving to guitar and vocal duties. They recruited their friend Wayne Naylor to take up bass duties. By this time, Patrick would contribute remotely while managing all of the band’s business dealings — eventually going on to a storied career in the music industry in A&R, radio promotion and artist management. The band split up and went off in their own directions.

“The breakup wasn’t acrimonious,” Roy Stein says. ““We all stayed in touch, and we’d do reunion shows here and there. We had a New Math reunion in 2009 where Johnny Cummings fronted the band. We had so much fun, I said to Johnny, ‘Why don’t we just go into the studio and cut some New Math songs?’ Gary and I wrote a couple new songs and made this studio album,”Postmodern Ghosts.”

2010’s Postmodern Ghosts saw the band revisiting their career. The Postmodern Ghosts rendition of “Love Under Will” is their most streamed song. “It was just a quick knock off, but I loved the sound of it,” says Stein. “The whole band was just cooking on the floor of the studio on that one.”

In 2022, the band began playing reunion shows in and around Rochester with their new frontman JDS’, The Shine and The Grievants‘ Derek Sapienza. “I played through the 2000s,” Sapienza says, “,“touring a lot, playing basements, art spaces and punk houses. The pop punk and hardcore scene didn’t appeal as much to me as the early punk days. That music was more foundational for me. I first heard New Math when I was 18. Our rock station WCMF put out this homegrown compilation with ‘Hot Sounds’ on it, and it was the best song on that record. I thought Rochester had this really big punk scene back then. When mybuddy Joe Masaro told me New Math was getting back together. I had him introduce me. I tried out, and ten days later I was in. I’ve been playing with them ever since.”

2023 saw Propeller Sound Recordings re-issuing New Math material, beginning with the 11-song Die Trying & Other Hot Sounds (1979-1983), a compilation of the band’s early singles and previously unreleased material. Feeling rejuvenated, the band went into the studio in early 2024 to record new material with their new frontman that included “I Can Tell” and “When I Was Young.”

Propeller Sound Recordings will be re-issuing the band’s 1985 effort Sundown On Venus [Definitive Edition]. The original album was released with complications: Enigma Records wanted additional material included with the album. The album was packaged with a 12-inch featuring extra tracks, including songs written for The Return of the Living Dead, some ill-selected cover songs and re-recordings of early New Math material. Many of those bonus tracks were put directly into the album song sequence, moving some of the songs intended for the original album song sequence to the bonus disc.

The inclusion of the non-album material blurred and obfuscated the band’s original vision of the album with the label opting for a sales-driven gimmick, when the band was actively trying to move beyond its original reception. “When Sundown On Venus originally came out,” says Stein,“I was stunned. It wasn’t what I expected. I didn’t expect it to be a double album with all these covers. This entire record was done in a day and a half, recorded and mixed. I didn’t think that a lot of the material we recorded in one or two takes was going to be included. . . “So when Jay [Coyle of Propeller Sound Recordings] talked about re-releasing the record, Gary and I were like, let’s release the record that we had thought about back in ‘85.”

The re-issued album’s material is now in the exact order the band originally intended Primarily written by the band’s Trainer, the non-linear story features outlaws, Venusian hideouts and mind-controlling monsters, heavily influenced by William S. Burrough’s The Red Night Trilogy and the work of Aleister Crowley. Each of the album’s songs was written a bit like a movie vignette that sees its characters, the gunslinger Bill Kelly, the “Masked Astronaut,” Jim Dawson, The Mindless Gang, Captain Mission and his crew of space pirates, a bitter priest and a banker who loves the sound of gunfire interacting with each other. What once slipped through the cracks of underground rock history now stands as a missing link between cowpunk, psych revival, rockabilly, punk-rooted Americana, and cinematic sci-fi storytelling.

To celebrate the reissues, the band shares a new single “Rocketfire Sex66,” as a companion piece to Sundown On Venus [Definite Edition]. “Rocketfire Sex66” is a swaggering glam punk tune that seemingly draws from and blends elements of Marc Bolan, Primal Scream, Social Distortion and The Rolling Stones — but while rooted in the sci-fi gunslinger in outer space vibe of Sundown on Venus. The result is something that’s gritty yet cinematic, new yet sounds as though it could have been a cut track from the album’s recording sessions.

“‘I’ve loved Mark Bolan since his earliest records,” says Stein.”I wanted to do something that was a bit of an homage to him, while still doing something lyrically that was Jet Black Berries. This sci-fi gunslinger and rockets thing. I wanted it to be sexual too, but tongue-in-cheek and fun.”

The accompanying video for “Roketfire Sex66” was made by Stein’s partner Sarah Davidson. The video features studio footage of the band recording the song cut with handmade, pounded metal cutouts of animated rockets, ray guns, stars and our sci-fi gunslinger protagonist meeting his sensual match after crash landing on a new planet.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Sweeping Promises Returns with Roaring “Rapture, Or . . . “

Lawrence, KS-based duo and JOVM mainstays Sweeping Promises — Lira Mondal (vocals, bass, production) and Caufield Schnug (guitar, drums, production) — just released their thorn album You Say I Romanticize 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 immersive process of tracking and whittling down YSIR demos and carving out an idiosyncratic chamber recording method for the album’s deliberate and international wall-of-sound approach, the duo brought in touring drummer Spenser Gralla to play the album’s material 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 runtime. 

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 includes the previously released “Cocoon,“Accent,” and it’s latest single “Rapture, Or . . .” “Rapture, Or. . . .” is a roaring and punchy apocalypse fantasy written with a defiant, plucky resolve that’s strangely sort of upbeat. It’s a song that’s perfectly suited for our contemporary hellscape fueled by greed, hatred and blood.

The duo explain, “‘Rapture, Or…’ we originally envisioned a sort of fallen monastic, mockingly devout, longing for a near-term judgment day (catch phrase: ‘I can’t wait for tomorrow’). The actual lyrics are scenario-adaptable, though, as apocalypse fantasies seemingly guide culture now, so you can’t blame us for finding a desire lane amid the ruins. It’s one of our poppier songs ever. We double-tracked Lira’s loud vocals in our tiled bathroom – our ‘cathedral’. A malfunctioning arp played the ascendant synth arpeggios, and the guitar on this one was improvised.” 

Directed by Shawn Brackbill, the accompanying DIY-styled video is split between features the duo performing the song in a small studio wth a brewing end-of-times-like phenomenon — one that seems like part-storm, part-eclipse, part-nuclear explosion.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Bug Facer Shares Bruising “Nuclear Bounty Hunter”

East Yorkshire, UK-based punks Bug Facer can trace their origins back to when founding duo James Cooper (bass, guitar, vocals) and Will Longton (drums, vocals) let psychedelic prog rock band Woodlouse, wanting to explore darker […]

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

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.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 74th Birthday, Stewart Copeland!

JOVM William Ruben Helms celebrates The Police drummer Stewart Copeland’s 74th birthday.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: TV Priest Shares Broodingly Atmospheric “Love Song (A Good Kind of Weapon)”

TV Priest — currently, Charlie Drinkwater (vocals) and Alex Sporgis (guitar) — will be releasing their third album Cartoons on November 5, 2026 through AMK/Kartel Music Group. With their first two album’s 2021’s Uppers and 2022’s My Other People, the British punk outfit have stood out as a probing, curious group with a talent for wrapping their arms around the existential, and connecting the disconnected.

Cartoons however, emerges from the wreckage of self-reckoning, with the band finding new ways of being — and writing music from a different starting point. The result is an album of material with shades of REM, Radiohead, The National and Foals. The fire and philosophizing of their previously released work is still there, but accompanied by a bigger sprawl of gentler instrumentation, including piano, fiddle, birdsong recordings sampled, then ruptured and pieced back together again to explore “the intersection between digtalism and nature.” As they began to complete rework their sound, everything was on the table.

The band’s Charlie Drinkwater says of the album, “Cartoons is a record about confusion. About the small, daily unspooling of the worlds we thought we knew, and the strange new ones being born in their slipstream. About heroes and villains and the increasingly thin and trembling line between them. About surveillance and sanctuary, and where, exactly, a person is allowed to disappear. About me, and sometimes about you.

“Cartoons began in slowing down. Alex Sprogis and I wrote it over two quiet years, and somewhere in that time we stopped guarding our front door. We let the room get crowded with collaborators, friends, and a wider cast of players. The songs grew louder and stranger and more tender for it. It is the most communal thing we’ve ever made, and the most exposed.

“It is also, somehow, our most direct record and our most expansive. The songs come for you quicker now; the choruses are not embarrassed to mean what they say. But underneath, the ground has shifted. American alt rock leans against electronic production. Alex’s guitars run into programmed drums, organic field recordings, digital data samples, and a low end that takes cues from dance production. And for the first time, I stopped being afraid to sing; to carry a melody out in the open, unguarded, without the old reflex to undercut or hide something. There is hiss and choir, machine and breath.

“If we used to point the lens outward, this time we turned it back on ourselves. Cartoons is more personally political: a record about how I try, and very often fail, to move through late capitalism, work, family, love and the long weather of my own interior. There is anger in it, but also tenderness; and grief that has stopped lying to itself. Not resolution. Just company, out in the noisy world.”

Cartoons will include the previously released “The Mud Never Dries,” and the album’s second and latest single “Love Song (A Good Kind of Weapon).” “Love Song (A Good Kind of Weapon)” is a mediative, slow-burning song that seemingly channels Radiohead and The National with the song built around a gorgeous string arrangement, broodingly atmospheric and swirling electronics, what sounds like twinkling and darting synths beneath Drinkwater’s yearning baritone croon. Arguably one of the most unabashedly and unashamedly candid and vulnerable songs of the band’s catalog, “Love Song” is a both a contented sigh and earnest expression of gratitude, full of the recognition that love is often complicated, frustrating yet always deeply rewarding; that love is what makes us whole and sustains us in the most difficult, brutal times of our lives — and when everything is desperate, shitty and in flames.

“Love motivated us to form the band, yet we’d never written a song exploring romantic love or addressed it as a statement of love to our partners. This was a response to that: a shedding of any artifice and an expression of desire,” Charlie Drinkwater explains. “We wanted to explore how love is both domestic and extraordinary. It’s in the washing up done without asking, or the flowers bought on the way home from work but it’s also in the grand gestures, the late-night conversations, or the personal wonder when you learn something new about someone despite all those years together. And, after all, love is a weapon for righteous change and goodness. It’s a statement of resistance when the current world’s mood music seems to be hatred and violence (or at least we are led to believe).”

The accompanying video is a collection of surreal imagery including Drinkwater walking through a field with a heart-shaped balloon Other times, he’s on a landline phone with a long extension cord baring his soul on the phone, as well as the band’s core duo in a bare studio space.