FeaturedNo Joy

August 25th, 2023

Purchase

Spanish Love Songs release 3rd single from forthcoming LP 'No Joy' out this August

NaN

July 12, 2023 - Today, Spanish Love Songs, have released a third new single from their upcoming album ‘No Joy’ out August 25 via Pure Noise Records. Fans can now stream and watch the music video for “Pendulum” below and on all digital streaming services.

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”.

So far, Spanish Love Songs are 3 for 3 with the new singles they've released, and although each song is very different showing some new sides to the band and with even more polish then previous releases, it still has everything that caught my attention with this band in the first place. The hooks are just as big as before and the melodies just as big as well. And I'm sure there will be a few upbeat rockers on the LP that will bring back some of that rawness from the last couple albums too. From what I can tell, 'No Joy' is definitely shaping up to be another triumphant anthemic album, perfect for the end of summer! Will have more on this soon.

By Jason Gordon
Jason Gordon image

Spanish Love Songs drop 2nd single "Clean-Up-Crew" from forthcoming LP

NaN

Spanish Love Songs, have released a new single called “Clean-Up Crew” today - a mid-30s ode to life’s could-have-beens – the second track to debut from their highly anticipated new album ‘No Joy’ out August 25, 2023 via Pure Noise Records.

“It feels like my entire life has been spent on the cusp of something,” says vocalist and guitarist Dylan Slocum. “I wanted to play baseball as a kid, and then I went to college and got hurt. I went to Hollywood to do film and TV and got pretty close. The band has gone beyond our wildest dreams, but at some point, you get tired of chasing after your dreams. The song is me taking a step back and asking, ‘Can we handle a small life? Could we give it up and move to the middle of nowhere and not worry about chasing some dream?’ To me, that’s death.”

The new song follows the lead single “Haunted”, which was released last month with the announcement of ‘No Joy’. The track carries the saltwater-kissed vignetting of an Asbury Park summer, awash in Boss-inspired nostalgia and percussive acoustic guitar that build to some of the band’s biggest hooks yet. The video, directed by Hannah Hall, is a quirky view into a bar-band scene where everyone’s just looking for a good time.

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.

“This is the closest we’ve ever gotten to figuring out how to translate what I hear in my head with more clarity,” Slocum says.

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.

‘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."

By Jason Gordon
Jason Gordon image

SPANISH LOVE SONGS, have revealed details on their upcoming new album ‘No Joy’ - the highly anticipated follow up to 2020’s critically acclaimed ‘Brave Faces Everyone’. ‘No Joy’ will be released on August 25, 2023 via Pure Noise Records.

Today, the band also release the first single and music video for “Haunted”, which can be streamed below. The track carries the saltwater-kissed vignetting of an Asbury Park summer, awash in Boss-inspired nostalgia and percussive acoustic guitar that build to some of the band’s biggest hooks yet. The video, directed by Hannah Hall, is a quirky view into a bar-band scene where everyone’s just looking for a good time.

“Haunted is a reintroduction of sorts for us,” explains vocalist and guitarist Dylan Slocum. “It lays out exactly the band we are at the moment, and after 9 months of writing and recording we knew it had to be the first to come out. We were ecstatic to bring it to life with Hannah."

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.

“This is the closest we’ve ever gotten to figuring out how to translate what I hear in my head with more clarity,” Slocum says.

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.”