- 2023-10-01
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MUSIC
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LANY Releases New Album “a beautiful blur”
American pop-rock band LANY, consisting of Paul Jason Klein (vocals/guitar) and Jake Clifford Goss (drums), released their fifth studio album “a beautiful blur” on September 29, 2023. via “Sunset Garden”.
It is their first album as the duo after the original member Charles Leslie Priest left the band.
The album is their first body of work in two years since the 2021 album “gg bb xx”, and comprises 13-track, produced by Mike Crossey and LANY.
Originally, the album title was “I Really Really Hope So”, but the duo changed the album title to “a beautiful blur” and the cover art, as well.
LANY said, “We are changing the name and cover of the album. The new title - which was the original title - will be 'a beautiful blur' and this is the artwork. I'm not sure why this all came rushing back to me when it did, but I'd like to think it's because this is a very special time in history for us.”- DeS-0HFxhYU
Paul Jason Klein said of the album, “I wrote the first song for this album on december 18, 2021. that was 526 days ago. god that's so much time. 5 + 2 + 6 = 13 which is the best number so obviously that's the number of songs on the new album. my hands are shaking rn. I'm so wound up. Nothing in the world means more to me than this music and u. I want u to like it so bad. Jake, myself, and our entire team have poured so much love and intentionality and detail into every part of this next chapter. I woke up this morning in a different pair of underwear than the ones I went to sleep in. They were on backwards. the box they came in was ripped in half on my floor. I have no recollection of this taking place. I'm fucking exhausted. but I'm so in love with my band and so head over heels for this life.”
He continued, “They say there are 5 basic needs to survive as a human being: air, water, food, shelter, and sleep. apparently, u can live like 40 days without food, 3 hours to 3 weeks without shelter depending on the conditions, just over 11 consecutive days without sleep, 3 days without water, and about 4 minutes without air. But how many seconds can someone go without hope? I'd say 0. It's what keeps every human moving, and it's definitely the only reason I'm still here. It's interesting... u never really even think about hope until it's the only thing you have left to hold onto. 13 songs about life and letdowns and everything eventually falling apart - even the STARS. But I made sure u could dance to half of 'em.”-
LANY explained about some tracks for the album.
“XXL”
“The first song written for IRRHS. 'XXL' - the song - explores a new expression of desire and lyrically focuses on the bittersweet sentiment of thinking the world of someone who's no longer in your life. 'XXL' - the video - tells a different story… where one's dream was sacrificed to follow someone else's... letting someone else be the star of THEIR story. Eventually, thru experience and pain, they put the pieces of their own dream back together leading them to the doorway of their purpose… to finally be the star of their own story.”
“Home Is Where the Hurt Is”
“not everything was perfect for most of us growing up, and there's a lot of pain attached to where we're from. for some of us, there was no other option than to leave everything we once knew to become everything we ever wanted to be.
songs like this aren't very popular to write, and they're not very fun to write either. they require a digging and a 'reliving' that can be painful. but our calling in life, as lany, is to make people feel less alone by putting words to music that otherwise would be held inside – never expressed, never processed, and never heard.”
“Love at First Fight”
“In a relationship, you learn a lot about a person from the first argument. It's an indicator of the relationship's trajectory and whether it's going to work out or not.”
“Alonica”
“Alonica is a place within yourself where being you and having you is enough for you. And I think maybe if you've been alive long enough on the planet you've fallen in to the trap just like me of looking to other people or other things or even other substances or whatever for validation for love for acceptance. And no matter what people are always going to let you down it's a part of life. And I think before you can really love anybody else, you've got to love your self first, right? And that is the journey to Alonica.”
LANY explained why they changed the album title.
“in october of last year, we were in tokyo to play a festival and start our 'a november to remember' tour. after a night out with the entire team, i was in the backseat of a cab heading back to my hotel room. i stuck my head out of the window to soak up the magic of the night, and antony tried to take a photo. it was a blurry mess. a beautiful blur. in that moment, with all of the early rough drafts of almost every song on the album already in my notes app, i knew that was the title.
somewhere along the way, during the piecing-together and finalizing process of making the album, i started to question every single artistic decision… desperate to find and to even just graze perfection. with jake's support thru it all, we landed on 'i really really hope so' and wanted to put ourselves on the cover for the very first time.
honestly, i've never thought a photograph (of us, specifically) could capture the true essence, breadth, and depth of an album. i now believe this more than ever! however, this does not take away the authenticity and vulnerability of the concept around 'i really really hope so.' that truth is deeply embedded into the fabric and dna of the album.
P.S. - this is why most of our press photos are blurry! because, at the time of this photoshoot, the title was still 'a beautiful blur.'
a month or so ago, we were back in japan to headline our stage at summer sonic... a bigger milestone for us than i can currently even comprehend. jake, myself, our manager, and a few others from our team found ourselves at an underground vinyl bar called 'grandfather's' in tokyo. an older gentleman, the 'grandfather,' was hand selecting every single song. he would take the vinyl sleeve of the corresponding song that was playing and place it on this sort of rack/pedestal for all in the bar to see.
i felt sick to my stomach. i knew we had to change the cover and title, but i was scared to bring it up. we had spent the last 6 months designing the artwork, preparing the release, doing preliminary interviews, and rolling out singles attached to the album title 'i really really hope so'... but this is FOREVER, and every decision we have ever made has been thru the lens of 'forever.'
after a few audible swear words and me prefacing the proposition with 'okay, i absolutely hate what i'm about to say and i'm so sorry'... i suggested we change everything. and, thank god, everyone was aligned and we got to work immediately.” - source : Apple Music
