Spanish Love Songs have released a third new single ‘Pendulum’ from their upcoming album ‘No Joy’ out August 25 via Pure Noise Records. Going more in depth on the lyrics of the song vocalist and guitarist Dylan Slocum explains, “The song is a few different stories blended together that all dance around the fact that death is such a solitary act. The details of the stories are meant to feel vaguely familiar — someone on the verge of dying alone in a hospital; someone with dementia; countless friends who’ve decided to end it on their own terms. We’ve all lost someone.”
Slocum continues “I think people generally don’t want to be left alone, or to die alone, yet that’s often all we’re left with. It’s all very terrifying, so a lot of the time I’m just trying to be present and enjoy what I’ve managed to scrape together. I wait for the pendulum of my worry to swing the other way, into some form of manic love.”
The new video was directed by Hannah Gray Hall, who was also behind the camera for the music video for the lead single ‘Haunted.’
Brimming with new wave pastiche, fluttering synths, shimmering walls of chorus guitar, and four-on-the-floor rhythms, ‘No Joy’ isn’t an exclamation point follow-up to the emotional catharsis of the landmark ‘Brave Faces Everyone’ as much as it is an exhale – the sound of vocalist and guitarist Dylan Slocum, his wife and keyboardist Meredith Van Woert, guitarist Kyle McAulay, bassist Trevor Dietrich, and drummer Ruben Duarte finding peace in quieter moments and embracing the negative space.
Produced by the band and Collin Pastore (Lucy Dacus, Julien Baker, Illuminati Hotties) and mixed by Carlos de la Garza (Paramore, M83, Best Coast), the 12 songs on ‘No Joy’ continue to find Spanish Love Songs grappling with the messiness of what it means to be alive in the modern age – unsure of the answers themselves but confident that together, we can all come a little closer to the solutions.
If ‘Brave Faces Everyone’ was about mustering up the strength to barely break even in an increasingly bleak world, ‘No Joy’ is finding the internal peace required to stay in the black. As Slocum says, “it’s an album about finding happiness in what you have and your current moment. It might be your best moment, or it might not, but you have to find joy in it.”
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‘No Joy’ Track Listing:
1. Lifers
2. Pendulum
3. Haunted
4. Clean-Up Crew
5. Middle of Nine
6. Marvel
7. I’m Gonna Miss Everything
8. Rapture Chaser
9. Mutable
10. Here You Are
11. Exit Bags
12. Re-Emerging Signs of the Apocalypse
Headline Tour in Australia:
Aug 19th – The Shaking Hand – Canberra
Aug 20th – Mary’s Underground – Sydney
Aug 21st – Hamilton Station Hotel – Newcastle
Aug 23rd – Vinnies Dive – Gold Coast
Aug 24th – The Outpost – Brisbane
Aug 25th – Stay Gold – Melbourne
Aug 26th – Stay Gold – Melbourne
Tour dates with Hot Mulligan:
Aug 31st – Pryzm – Kingston, UK
Sept 1st – Stylus – Leeds, UK
Sept 2nd – Academy 2 – Manchester, UK
Sept 3rd – SWG3 – Glasgow, UK
Sept 5th – Rescue Rooms – Nottingham, UK
Sept 6th – SWX – Bristol, UK
Sept 7th – Electric Ballroom – London, UK
Sept 8th – O2 Academy 2 – Birmingham, UK
Sept 10th – Effenaar – Eindhoven, Netherlands
Sept 11th – Club Volta – Cologne, Germany
Sept 12th – Logo – Hamburg, Germany
Sept 13th – So36 – Berlin, Germany
Sept 15th – Skaters Palace – Münster, Germany
Sept 16th – Strom – Munich, Germany
Sept 17th – Schlachthof – Weisbaden, Germany
Sept 18th – Trix – Antwerp, Belgium