Nation of Language share new single ‘Weak In Your Light’ and announce new album Strange Disciple out 15 September 2023
Nation of Language - Photo by Dominik Friess
Previous praise for Nation Of Language:
"They've delivered a true modern-day classic of the synth-pop genre." - NME ★★★★★
“A Way Forward is Nation of Language at their best and boldest.” - Gigwise, 8/10
"The synth-pop band combine mannered singing, retro-styling and high seriousness to highly impressive effect” - Financial Times ★★★★
“It offers a subtle reminder that these art-school Brooklynites might have equally fond memories of 2000s indie-dance artists like Cut Copy, Bloc Party, and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs as their ’80s luminaries.” - Pitchfork
“Let’s just call it. It’s the Album of the Year.” - KEXP
Today, Nation of Language announce their new album Strange Disciple - out 15 September 2023 via [PIAS], as well as sharing new single ‘Weak In Your Light’, and further UK/EU headline dates.
Following performances at Primavera Sound, Pitchfork Festival, Outside Lands, and dozens more of what will be their biggest headline shows to date, the Brooklyn band’s third LP is one that is meant to invoke wandering, wondrous walks through city streets both foreign and familiar.
In the three short years since their acclaimed debut, 2020’s Introduction, Presence, Nation of Language have sustained an increasing ascent from small, hyperlocal scenes to international stages and late-night television, while their musical evolution has embodied three distinct modes of moving through the world: lead singer and songwriter Ian Devaney imagines the band’s first album, Introduction, Presence, as taking place in a car, whereas second album A Way Forward occurred on and as a locomotive, influenced by the chugging sound of krautrock. Now, as their first record to be fully created and released outside the confines of a pandemic-instilled lockdown, Strange Disciple is centred around groove-driven songs and bouncing basslines that feel ambulatory and wayfaring, informed by the excitement of exploring new places the band never thought they would see on tour.
Recorded in the East Williamsburg studio of the album’s producer Nick Millhiser (Holy Ghost!, LCD Soundsystem), Strange Disciple was completed during the time Nation of Language spent at home, in between runs of live shows throughout this past year. Unlike their previous two LPs, this time band members Ian Devaney, Aidan Noell, and Alex MacKay, were able to consider the creative choices that would be most compelling to perform on-stage, expanding their new wave, post-punk and synth-powered sound with newfound fervour. They incorporated live drums into the arrangements and more guitar than they ever had before, as they channelled long-time loves of shoegaze and the dark melodrama of troubadours like Leonard Cohen. For the first time ever, Nation of Language also committed to a completely analogue recording process, allowing themselves to accept their imperfections and resist the inclination to overthink the emphatic, euphoric and cerebral style of song writing “that makes you want to dance and cry at the same time" (Document Journal).
Led by Ian Devaney’s tender, towering professions of all-consuming adoration, new single ‘Weak In Your Light’ arrives on the heels of Nation of Language’s soaring ‘Sole Obsession’, the recent single and spectral music video and that was hailed as “a perfect dancefloor number about devotion and human compulsions" (Paste). Both songs embody Strange Disciple’s overarching theme of hopeless devotion, and the feelings of agony, ecstasy and revelatory anguish that come with any form of unhealthy dedication. From the incessant, constantly outrageous news cycle described on the hook-filled ‘Too Much Enough’, to the romance, toxic infatuation and addictive patterns sung throughout the rest of the album, each song finds Ian Devaney telling transient stories about temptation, guilt, and the inexplicable joy of being so pained by one's passionate fixations.
Listen to ‘Weak In Your Light’ here
“Sometimes when I feel the most is when I feel hopelessly devoted to something or someone,” explains Devaney.
Nation of Language will begin to debut the music of Strange Disciple live this spring, starting with Brooklyn Steel on 4th May - a hometown crowd that marks the largest US show the band has headlined yet, and will be followed by Primavera Festival, a date at London’s KOKO, Glasgow, and a further EU/UK tour on-sale now.
Find the full list of dates below and tickets at nationoflanguage.com/events.
Strange Disciple out 15th September via [PIAS]
Pre-order here
Nation of Language Tour Dates 2023
28.04 - Baltimore, MD - Ottobar#
04.05 - Brooklyn, NY - Brooklyn Steel^
17.05 - Los Angeles, CA - The Fonda Theatre*
18.05 - Seattle, WA - The Crocodile*
19.05 - Seattle, WA - The Crocodile*
02.06 - Barcelona, ES - Primavera Sound Barcelona
06.06 - Madrid, ES - Primavera In The City
09.06 - Madrid, ES - Primavera Sound Madrid
10.06 - Porto, PT - Primavera Sound Porto
11.06 - Hilvarenbeek, NL - Best Kept Secret
14.06 - London, UK - KOKO
16.06 - Glasgow, UK - QMU
21.07 - Chicago, IL - Pitchfork Music Festival
03.08 - Haldern, DE - Haldern Pop
04.08 - Diepholz, DE - Appletree Garden
05.08 - Katowice, PL - OFF Festival
11.08 - San Francisco, CA - Outside Lands
12.08 - Portland, OR - Revolution Hall
13.08 - Seattle, WA - Day In Day Out
14.08 - Vancouver, BC - Rickshaw Theatre
15.09 - Berlin, DE - Kesselhaus
16.09 - Hamburg, DE - Uebel & Gefährlich
17.09 - Malmo, SE - Plan B
18.09 - Copenhagen, DK - Pumpehuset
20.09 - Kӧln, DE - Gebäde9
21.09 - Amsterdam, NL - Paradiso
22.09 - Brussels, BE - Orangerie
23.09 - Paris, FR - Trabendo
25.09 - Tourcoing, FR - Le Grand Mix
28.09 - Brighton, UK - Concorde 2
29.09 - Bristol, UK - Marble Factory
30.09 - Nottingham, UK - Rescue Rooms
04.10 - Manchester, UK - New Century
05.10 - Leeds, UK - Stylus
06.10 - Sheffield, UK - Foundry
07.10 - Newcastle, UK - Boiler Shop
13.10 - Pittsburgh, PA - Mr. Small's Theatre#
14.10 - Cleveland, OH - Grog Shop#
16.10 - Madison, WI - High Noon Saloon#
18.10 - Milwaukee, WI - Back Room @ Colectivo#
19.10 - St. Paul, MN - Amsterdam Bar & Hall#
20.10 - Kansas City, MO - RecordBar#
22.10 - Denver, CO - Gothic#
23.10 - Salt Lake City, UT - Urban Lounge#
26.10 - San Francisco, CA - The Independent#
29.10 - San Diego, CA - Belly Up Tavern#
30.10 - Phoenix, AZ - Crescent Ballroom#
02.11 - Austin, TX - Scoot Inn#
03.11 - Fort Worth, TX - Tulips FTX#
04.11 - Houston, TX - White Oak Music Hall - Upstairs#
07.11 - Nashville, TN - Basement East#
08.11 - Asheville, NC – Grey Eagle#
09.11 - Carrboro, NC - Cat's Cradle#
10.11 - Philadelphia, PA - Union Transfer#
30.11 - Boston, MA - The Sinclair#
02.12 - Montreal, QC - Studio TD#
02.12 - Toronto, ON - Phoenix#
^w/ Gustaf
*w/ Reggie Watts
# w/ Miss Grit
Tickets available here
Strange Disciple out 15th September 2023 via [PIAS]
Pre-order here
Tracklisting
1. Weak In Your Light
2. Sole Obsession
3. Surely I Can't Wait
4. Swimming in the Shallow Sea
5. Too Much, Enough
6. Spare Me the Decision
7. Sightseer
8. Stumbling Still
9. A New Goodbye
10. I Will Never Learn
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