Spanish Love Songs have officially released their newest album ‘No Joy’ out today through Pure Noise Records. 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.
“Every album we make is largely a reaction to the previous, and a cataloging of the intervening events,” explains vocalist and guitarist Dylan Slocum.”’No Joy’ isn’t really different in that regard, except that typically the albums are born out of the noise and chaos of our daily life, but it was created during a period of stillness. We released our last album in Feb 2020. All of us had given up our day jobs and apartments in anticipation of being on the road for most of 2020 and 2021. Then all at once, we were quite literally back home, with nothing to do really except worry. Our big plans were dead. Maybe that period from February to March was it for us”
“The time off the road – back to a 9 to 5 job, not chasing any sort of big dream, writing songs for the sake of the exercise — was maybe the stillest my life has been since I was 15,” he continues. “In the stillness, there was no grand epiphany. Just boredom. Bored with a quiet life. With work. With my scattered friends. Nothing to look forward to except the creeping feeling that the world was in a death spiral. The impending doom. That quickly got boring too. And by the time we started talking about a new album, and were back on the clock, I’d grown bored with the band and the songs I was writing. The hoping that this would be the one for us. With the endless list of grievances. The stories in the songs. Bored with the darkness.”
“This album is a reaction to the previous, the outcome of trying to destroy the boredom. An attempt to throw out expectations and just chase down the things that excite us. We’ve torn down what we do and tried to hold onto the best parts. The songs are more expansive. The stories try to be more optimistic. This is the first time we’ve made the exact record we set out to make. And we’ve ultimately arrived at the next stage in the band’s evolution.”
“It’s founded on a sense of gratitude. We’ve re – learned that nothing is given, that happiness is finite. It tries to make peace with that. It’s a foolish attempt to hold onto the things we love as tightly as possible. It’s really an album of love songs for the people I’m going to miss. We’re finally living up to our name.”
‘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
Tour dates:
Headline Tour in Australia
Aug 25 – Stay Gold – Melbourne (SOLD OUT)
Aug 26 – Stay Gold – Melbourne
With Hot Mulligan
Aug 31st – Pryzm – Kingston, UK
September 1st – Stylus – Leeds, UK
September 2nd – Academy 2 – Manchester, UK
September 3rd – SWG3 – Glasgow, UK
September 5th – Rescue Rooms – Nottingham, UK
September 6th – SWX – Bristol, UK
September 7th – 02 Forum Kentish Town – London, UK
September 8th – O2 Academy 2 – Birmingham, UK
September 10th – Effenaar – Eindhoven, Netherlands
September 11th – Club Volta – Cologne, Germany
September 12th – Logo – Hamburg, Germany
September 13th – So36 – Berlin, Germany
September 15th – Skaters Palace – Münster, Germany
September 16th – Strom – Munich, Germany
September 17th – Schlachthof – Weisbaden, Germany
September 18th – Trix – Antwerp, Belgium
With Hot Mulligan, Heart Attack Man, Ben Quad
November 8th – Bogart’s – Cincinnati, OH
November 10th – The Roxian – Pittsburgh, PA
November 11th – The Agora – Cleveland, OH
November 12th – History – Toronto, Ontario
November 14th – House of Blues – Boston, MA
November 15th – Irving Plaza – New York, NY
November 16th – Paramount – Huntington, NY
November 17th – The Fillmore – Philadelphia, PA
November 18th – The National – Richmond, VA
November 19th – 9:30 Club – Washington, DC
November 21st – The Fillmore – Charlotte, NC
November 22nd – House of Blues – Myrtle Beach, SC
November 24th – Revolution – Ft. Lauderdale, FL
November 25th – House of Blues – Orlando, FL
November 26th – Masquerade – Atlanta, GA
November 28th – House of Blues – Houston, TX
November 29th – Emo’s – Austin, TX
December 1st – Van Buren – Phoenix, AZ
December 2nd – The Wiltern – Los Angeles, CA
December 3rd – House of Blues – San Diego, CA
December 5th – Fillmore – San Francisco, CA
December 6th – Ace of Spades – Sacramento, CA
December 8th – Showbox SoDo – Seattle, WA
December 9th – Crystal Ballroom – Portland, OR
December 11th – The Depot – Salt Lake City, UT
December 12th – The Summit – Denver, CO
December 14th – Varsity Theater – Minneapolis, MN
December 15th – Aragon Ballroom – Chicago, IL
December 16th – House of Blues – Chicago, IL
December 17th – Royal Oak Music Hall – Detroit, MI