Tensions arrived a couple of weeks ago — the sophomore full-length from Athens-based band XOAN. The first thing they told me was simple: they didn’t want every track to sound the same. They wanted difference, but held together by something that feels like one continuous piece. “We tried to keep a different approach to each and every one of them but at the same time we added elements that bind them all together as one long piece of work,” they shared.
The record moves through a clear thematic lane: modern pressure that doesn’t let up. Not abstract, not theoretical — just the stuff we all, or at least most of us, wrestle with daily. “Lyrically, ‘Tensions’ moves through themes of modern age frustration, inner conflict, and existential reflection,” they explain. The songs deal with push and pull: freedom vs. control, perception vs. reality, connection vs. isolation. It’s procrastination, self-sabotage, coping mechanisms that turn unhealthy, watching friendships fade out, dealing with systems that see you as nothing but numbers.
XOAN don’t pretend to solve any of it. They’re clear about that: the record acknowledges the struggle and leaves the door open. No pat answers. “The record doesn’t offer easy resolutions… these conflicts are a part of the human experience that must be lived through, and if they are caught up in something similar, they are not alone.”
Musically, the set jumps lanes. Short electric-piano intro, punk energy, post-hardcore weight, trance-like repetition, organic indie alt rock and straight-up pop-rock. Autotune appears twice — not as a trend-chasing move but because it fits the emotional source of certain songs.
“Nothing belongs to anyone and its meaning depends on context,” they note when talking about using autotune on themes related to substance abuse and warped realities. These experiments serve the record’s question marks: how do we cope when coping itself turns strange?
Across ten tracks, “Tensions” frames discomfort without dramatizing it. Some parts move fast and unsettled, others sit heavy and stubborn. There’s a song about how anxiety exaggerates everything until small cracks look like chasms. Another song rewires the idea of manifesting into something skeptical and self-aware. A different track looks at how digital life reshapes identity into data and metrics. Even a moment about friendship — a bar night turning into distance — becomes its own quiet storyline about drift.
The band describes one track as “an ode to defiance and self-determination,” pushing against expectations. Another goes full intimate: Greek-language lyrics trying to hold onto a particular island, a particular summer. These emotional shifts give the record its motion — tension as a living thing, not a concept.
“Tensions” is out everywhere, including a 12’’ transparent red vinyl pressing. All songs were written by XOAN and produced together with Marios Adamopoulos. Mixing and engineering involved Marios Adamopoulos at Buduzi Studios and Alex Bolpasis at Suono Studios, with mastering handled by Greg Obis at Chicago Mastering Service. The artwork includes album photography by Theo Vranas and vinyl layout/design by Maria Kokordeli.
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Below you’ll find the band’s full track-by-track commentary — each song explained in their own words, without filters.
1. Play Along
On our opening track we tried to channel our inner Beatles by making a short electric piano ballad. A lot of people tell us that it should be developed to be longer, but we think Play Along sets the tone nicely for the album as it is, by introducing notions of disillusionment, frustration and futility with hints of perseverance.
2. High Underwater
High Underwater is one of the cornerstones of Tensions. Not only because it’s one of the first tracks we worked on for this record, but also because it gave us the ground for experimentation.
Apart from the carefree off-beat groove, we decided to use autotune on some vocal parts of the song. In recent years we have heard artists use autotune as a proper instrument rather than a gimmick. We recognize its association with trap and that it can alienate listeners who automatically link the sound to that scene, but nothing belongs to anyone and its meaning depends on context. Thematically, we thought it would be interesting to use this effect on a song about unhealthy coping mechanisms and substance abuse.
3. Cobwebs
Maybe the heaviest song on the record, Cobwebs finds us reaching back to our Post Hardcore backgrounds. The riff and the 3/4 groove give the song the sense of a massive weight, in an effort to reflect the lyrical context of being stuck or entangled, as well as the push and pull between wanting freedom and choosing comfort in the familiar, even if it’s painful.
4. Down in the Gutter
The fastest and punkiest song of the record, Down in the Gutter, was the first song we released off Tensions and Philip (Guitars and Vocals) made a video back in the day with VHS footage of his dad’s old tapes. The fast riffs give out a sense of unrest and the lyrics reflect periods in life when inner tension is relentless. The chorus entertains the notion that when facing a turbulent period, being in a bad mental state and under pressure, usually the parts of your personality that prevail are the ones that hurt yourself and others and cause distress.
5. Numbers
One of our favorite songs on the record, Numbers blends a repetitive 3/4 drum pattern with off-tempo accents on the guitar to create the feeling of a peculiar constant motion. This goes along with the lyrical context that taps into some of the anxieties of the digital age. Society’s reliance on technology, the way we become free test subjects and unpaid employees of huge tech companies just by being users, and how easy it is for them to manipulate people while humanity and individuality are reduced to data points, clicks, and metrics.
6. False Alarms
A tune about taking the culture of manifesting and auto-suggestion for a spin, using its tropes to push past self-doubt and anxiety while quietly mocking them. The song explores anxiety, doubt, self-deception and avoidance through an internal dialogue that warps reality, turning small worries into towering fears. The laid back, slacker vibe of the verses comes in juxtaposition with the intense powerchord-driven chorus where singing about self-deception gives off a sense of liberation.
7. Wire
Maybe the most straightforward pop rock song of the record, Wire is an ode to defiance and self-determination. We tried to combine the pop sensibilities of Phoenix along with some Foo Fighters energy on this one and the result became one of the most fun songs to play live.
Lyrically, it’s about rejecting society’s expectations and living on your own terms by taking risks and embracing uncertainty. A celebration of personal freedom, even if it comes with mistakes.
8. Sand of the World
Sand of the World is one of the biggest experiments of the record. Apart from its repetitive trance-like groove and vocal line, we tried to create a mystical atmosphere to this song and use it as a canvas of experimentation. The boldest production decision we made for the whole record was to use autotune throughout Sand of the World on the vocals. Combined with its Post-Punk feel and Psych Rock energy, we think that we made a song that is unique and stands out. Its lyrics revolve around the search for meaning in a chaotic world, where time often feels like both a burden and a fleeting resource.
9. Friends
A heartfelt song about friendship and a play on how “friends calling it a day” can be interpreted literally, as in being left alone in a bar after your friends leave, and figuratively, as a reflection of growing distance between once-close companions. For the bridge/outro section we channeled some of our finest guitar work and it has grown to become one of our favorite parts on the record. We also made a visualizer for the song using footage from a party we threw at our old studio, right before we got evicted. The owner wanted to make it a hotel or something.
10. Ksydi
An effort to evoke summer imagery of a particular island on the Aegean, Ksydi is the first song we have ever released that is written in Greek. It starts off like an acoustic closer track, but soon it evolves into a psychedelic ride. For the chorus, we tried to assimilate the feeling of the waves crashing in by dynamic shifts and big fuzzy shoegaze-like guitar chords. Our hope for it is to be a great companion to every summer adventure.
