After a strong debut, Naked Giants, the rising rockers from Seattle, have announced the release of their sophomore effort.
Titled The Shadow, it was produced by Chris Funk of the Decemberists. the record shows growth and maturity that builds on the pop-punk-grunge-surf-rock they showcased on 2018’s SLUFF and last year’s Green Fuzz EP.
Even though they have a collective average age of 23, the band took a long look inside while composing it and that’s reflected in its themes.
“The Shadow is a much more honest album than SLUFF – we’ve come to realize that the path to becoming a better person and bringing positivity into the world isn’t always linear, and there’s a lot of growth in taking an honest look at the “shadow-y” parts of life. Whether it’s personal anxiety and depression or collective guilt and trauma, there’s always a part of yourself that’s hard to confront and understand. But The Shadow is all about facing that darkness and having the strength to bring it into the light,” they say.
From that collection, the band has shared the video for the first single. “Take A Chance” best encapsulates the band’s ethos as they head into The Shadow. In a shade under three minutes, the clip sees the trio dance together but separately in quarantine and the song is a callback to classic early 2000s garage rock.
“‘Take A Chance’ is a new step in the dance-the-stress-away attitude we’ve had since the band was formed. This time around it’s a bit more focused – we’re exploring these big unanswered questions in our lives, like the mechanisms of privilege and oppression or the capitalist oxymoron of individualism and assimilation, and we’re pairing it all with a danceable backbeat to tell people it’s ok to get up off the couch and do something about it,” they say.
Check it out below.
Naked Giants’ The Shadow is out via New West Records.
Leave a comment