Drive-By Truckers just released their last album, The Unraveling, at the beginning of the year. But yesterday, they announced that they would be following it up with another full length album called The New OK. The album title is how Hood has been responding when concerned friends ask him how he’s doing: “I’m doing OK… the new OK.” And now, The New OK is already out in the world for your listening pleasure.

The tracks on The New OK mostly come from the same Memphis recording sessions that led to The Unraveling. The original plan was to put out a quarantine EP featuring songs they liked that didn’t end up fitting on the album. But then they decided to include some songs written during “this endless summer of protests, riots, political shenanigans and pandemic horrors,” as Patterson Hood put it, and the project grew.

“We ended up with a full album that hopefully balances out the darkness of our current situation with a hope for better days and nights ahead,” Hood explained in a lengthy statement that accompanied the album’s announcement. Stream the whole thing, which also includes a cover of the Ramones’ “The KKK Took My Baby Away” with vocals by bassist Matt Patton and a new version of “The Perilous Night,” below.

The New OK is out now via ATO.

CREDIT: Jason Thrasher