BE WELL announced their debut full-length album, The Weight and The Cost, set for release on August 21st via Equal Vision Records and End Hits Records (EU/UK). The band is fronted by prolific record producer Brian McTernan (Turnstile, Thrice, Hot Water Music), and includes guitarists Mike Schleibaum (Darkest Hour) and Peter Tsouras (Fairweather), bassist Aaron Dalbec (Bane), and drummer Shane Johnson (Fairweather). The Weight and The Cost marks McTernan’s unexpected but welcomed return to the other side of the glass. To celebrate the album announcement, the band has shared its first single, “Confessional,” along with an accompanying music video. “Confessional” is the album’s final track, and serves as an emotional ode to McTernan’s hopes for his daughter’s future as he works on pulling his own life together. Both optimism and pain are palpable in the song, which serves as an anthem for these isolated times.
Be Well’s debut finds McTernan in his most honest and transparent moments. He chronicles his struggles with depression and fatherhood through lyrics that are equal parts heartbreaking and hopeful. Recorded at McTernan’s famed Salad Days Studio in Baltimore, this record is refreshingly real and at times emotionally raw. This is an album that pushes well outside of the confines of what you already know about its members’ previous bands. The Weight and The Cost has the urgency, energy, and vulnerability of something totally new. You can now pre-order The Weight and The Cost here and watch the video for “Confessional” below.
Speaking on the album, Schleibaum stated:
“It’s been amazing to do a band with people who I’ve known for more than half my life- I’ve played and toured with everyone, and Brian has produced records for all of our bands. Brian is one of the most private people I know and it’s crazy to see how much of himself he revealed on this record.”
Lyrics:
I don’t know where to run, everything feels so wrong
There’s man with a mask in my home, kneeling in front of a confessionalI only know a few chords, and a lot of mixed metaphors
It’s hard to think I’m responsible for even myself, much less this girlNo light came at dawn, and I am barely holding on
The shutter snapped and it froze the frame, but I barely recognize my faceI only know a few chords, and a lot of mixed metaphors
It’s hard to think I’m responsible for even myself, much less this girlOne day I’ll be better, I hope that you never
Feel as lost as I do today
It changes with the weather, It’s the worst in November
My head swirls as the colors change
I drown it in alcohol so I can sleepI’m not strong, no not enough
To wake and face the morning sun
Unexceptional, completely and totally forgettableMaybe it’s not rational, but nothing makes sense to me at all
I know it isn’t fashionable, but I wear it so wellOne day I’ll be better, I hope that you never
Feel as lost as I do today
It changes with the weather, It’s the worst in November
My head swirls as the colors change
I drown it in alcohol I never thought that I would end up here this wayThere is a storm cloud outside that I can’t ignore
The water’s rushing in through an open door
Slowly it rises
I can still breathe, but I have to be reminded
That my heart is still beating and this feeling will pass
It can feel defeating, but it never lasts
And through a different lens the glass is half full in fact, I got it
But there’s a storyline that is only in my head
I’ve spent half of my life wishing I was dead
If there is part of this that I shouldn’t have said, I’m sorry
To fix it I have to get back to the place it first started
