Chicago-based indie outfit Side Hug releases “These Days” from New Language, their first full-length album, due out October 31 on Easy Does It Records. The single delivers a message of tough love, capturing the process of moving on from a past relationship and forging a new path. The opening lyric: "Read my lips / Learned a new language / I’m done with the same shit these days,” not only provides the album’s title but also sets the song’s bold, unapologetic tone. Blending a self-love mantra with a social reckoning, the track lands somewhere between catharsis and confrontation. Vocalist, Lyd Landor sings over chiming guitars and driving drums: “No one’s going to love you / Like you love yourself… No one’s going to find you / When you’re angry.” It’s a declaration of empowerment, resilience, and moving forward on one’s own terms.

"These Days" is now streaming everywhere along with the three previously released singles "Bi-Weekly," "Everyone Else," and "Temporary" all from the forthcoming LP New Language due out end of the month.

New Language marks a sonic evolution for the band, moving beyond the nostalgic indie-folk of their earlier releases into the atmospheric textures of post-punk, shoegaze, and art rock. Produced and mixed by Erik Rasmussen at Chicago’s Palisade Studios, the album is as raw as it is refined, fusing twinkling guitars, serrated basslines, and synth flourishes with emotionally resonant songwriting. “The album really focuses on this idea of change: accepting it, learning from it, and letting things go,” says vocalist Lyd Landor. “Things kind of suck right now, but they will get better. Just keep putting one foot in front of the other.”

Following a string of pandemic-era transformations from relationship upheavals to lineup shifts and newfound sobriety. Side Hug’s New Language mirrors personal growth with musical reinvention, including nods to Joy Division, The Cure, and their Chicago peers like Deeper and Pool Holograph. The band crafts a new identity that’s moody, melodic, and defiantly hopeful. Fans of the aforementioned bands along with bands like Tokyo Police Club, Alvvays, Beach Fossils, Wild Nothing and the like will enjoy this.