Post-punk four-piece Blessed return today with a video for new single "Anything," the first taste of the band's forthcoming sophomore full-length Circuitous, arriving October 28 on Flemish Eye.
The "Anything" video was created by Nathan Donovan and Jacob Dutton and features the same nameless child robot featured on the Circuitous album art. The song itself is a patiently evolving tangle of chilly guitar and tense, capricious percussion; in a statement about the track, singer and guitarist Drew Riekman said:
The narrative that you can be anything if you work hard enough is absurd. It ignores so many facets of life, development, geography, class, on and on et al. But it pits people against each other in an effort to become "something", a "something" that is loosely defined and shaped by personality rather than a communal vision. It creates a pedestal to put yourself or others on. You're never good enough, because there's always someone above you doing more. We're reaching for unattainable lifestyles, that we don't even need, that are hyper individualistic and negate the need for community.
When you're looking at the environment you exist in socially as a pyramid, and there's people you want to be closer to "at the top", that's a net negative for anyone. The more accessible we are, and on the level with each other we are in our immediate places, the more we gain.
Circuitous was recorded at Vancouver's Rain City Recorders with Matt Roach and Emily Ryan, and was mixed by John Congleton. It's the full-length follow-up to 2019's Salt. Last year, Blessed released the iii EP and its accompanying remix EP.
Check out the video for "Anything," plus the Circuitous tracklist, below.
Circuitous:
1. Redefine
2. Trust
3. Anything
4. Agoraphobia
5. Person
6. Peeling
7. Provoked
8. Guillotine
Pre-order Circuitous.
The "Anything" video was created by Nathan Donovan and Jacob Dutton and features the same nameless child robot featured on the Circuitous album art. The song itself is a patiently evolving tangle of chilly guitar and tense, capricious percussion; in a statement about the track, singer and guitarist Drew Riekman said:
The narrative that you can be anything if you work hard enough is absurd. It ignores so many facets of life, development, geography, class, on and on et al. But it pits people against each other in an effort to become "something", a "something" that is loosely defined and shaped by personality rather than a communal vision. It creates a pedestal to put yourself or others on. You're never good enough, because there's always someone above you doing more. We're reaching for unattainable lifestyles, that we don't even need, that are hyper individualistic and negate the need for community.
When you're looking at the environment you exist in socially as a pyramid, and there's people you want to be closer to "at the top", that's a net negative for anyone. The more accessible we are, and on the level with each other we are in our immediate places, the more we gain.
Circuitous was recorded at Vancouver's Rain City Recorders with Matt Roach and Emily Ryan, and was mixed by John Congleton. It's the full-length follow-up to 2019's Salt. Last year, Blessed released the iii EP and its accompanying remix EP.
Check out the video for "Anything," plus the Circuitous tracklist, below.
Circuitous:
1. Redefine
2. Trust
3. Anything
4. Agoraphobia
5. Person
6. Peeling
7. Provoked
8. Guillotine
Pre-order Circuitous.