“Every record needs a thesis, needs a crisis or campaign,” John Rossiter sings at the start of “Root And Crown.” “All my feelings need a reason, need a righteousness or blame.” So what’s the point of Welcome To Conceptual Beach, the upcoming Young Jesus album that includes this song? Per Rossiter, Conceptual Beach is the mental refuge where he finds inner peace. “The reason it’s called Welcome To… is because I’m inviting other inner landscapes into it.”

Such heady philosophical framework informed our Band To Watch designation for Young Jesus upon the release of their first Saddle Creek LP The Whole Thing Is Just There two years ago. So did the band’s penchant for adventurous sonic shapeshifting, that sense that you never know exactly what a Young Jesus song is going to sound like. “Root And Crown,” for instance, is both deathly slow and deeply dramatic, a ballad that cuts against the basic understanding of what a lead single is supposed to do. Instead of working to grab your attention, it demands you come to it.

If you so choose, you can do that below via director Blake Holland’s music video.

TRACKLIST:

01 “Faith”
02 “Pattern Doubt”
03 “(un)knowing”
04 “Meditations”
05 “Root And Crown”
06 “Lark”
07 “Magicians”

Welcome To Conceptual Beach is out 8/14 on Saddle Creek.