Hearty rockers Spanish Love Songs has unveiled information about their forthcoming album, ‘No Joy,’ the eagerly awaited successor to 2020’s critically acclaimed ‘Brave Faces Everyone.’ ‘No Joy’ is set for release on August 25, 2023, through Pure Noise Records.
Additionally, the band has launched the premier single and music video for “Haunted.” The track evokes the sun-kissed memories of an Asbury Park summer, immersed in Springsteen-esque nostalgia and rhythmically engaging acoustic guitar, culminating in some of the band’s most striking hooks to date. The video, directed by Hannah Hall, offers a whimsical glimpse into a bar-band atmosphere where everyone is seeking a moment of enjoyment.
“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.”
The band, at Sold Out shows this week in Cleveland, Detroit, and Philadelphia hosted exclusive listening sessions of ‘No Joy’ in its entirety, prior to their appearance at Slam Dunk Music Festival on May 27 in Hatfield, UK and May 28 in Leeds, UK. They also recently announced an upcoming UK/EU fall run with Hot Mulligan, with more global touring to be announced soon. All current dates listed below with more info found here.
Aug 31 – Kingston, UK – Pryzm
Sept 1 – Leeds, UK – Stylus
Sept 2 – Manchester, UK – Academy 2
Sept 3 – Glasgow, UK – SWG3
Sept 5 – Nottingham, UK – Rescue Rooms
Sept 6 – Bristol, UK – SWX
Sept 7 – London, UK – Electric Ballroom
Sept 8 – Birmingham, UK – O2 Academy 2
Sept 10 – Eindhoven, NL – Effenaar
Sept 11 – Cologne, DE – Club Volta
Sept 12 – Hamburg, DE – Logo
Sept 13 – Berlin, DE – So36
Sept 15 – Münster, DE – Skaters Palace
Sept 16 – Munich, DE – Strom
Sept 17 – Weisbaden, DE – Schlachthof
Sept 18 – Antwerp, BE – Trix
