Shame – “Water In The Well”
The British post-punk group are about to return with their sophomore album. Ever since their debut, 2018’s Songs Of Praise, the band toured incessantly and earned themselves a whole bunch of fervent fans. But along the way, they also had crises of faith and experienced longterm ripple effects from life in the music industry. That culminated in Drunk Tank Pink, which arrives in January.
The album was born from an era described as something of a crash landing back at home after years spent touring. Various members of Shame found themselves trying to make sense of their lives. Frontman Charlie Steen went through a hard partying stint, and then “an intense bout of waking fever-dreams.” He wound up locking himself in a small room called “the womb,” with walls painted the same shade of pink as in a drunk tank — hence the album’s title — to write his way out of it all. “You become very aware of yourself and when all of the music stops, you’re left with the silence,” Steen said in a statement. “And that silence is a lot of what this record is about.”
Drunk Tank Pink is touted as a big stylistic leap from Shame’s debut. Part of that seems to come from guitarist Sean Coyle-Smith, who turned to new influences like Talking Heads, ESG, and highlife music. “For this album I was so bored of playing guitar,” he said. “The thought of even playing it was mind-numbing. So I started to write and experiment in all these alternative tunings and not write or play in a conventional ‘rock’ way.”
We’d previously heard “Alphabet,” the album’s opener, and now Shame have shared another new track alongside the announcement. This one’s called “Water In The Well.” It comes with a video directed by Pedro Takahashi, and you can check it out below.
TRACKLIST:
01 “Alphabet”
02 “Nigel Hitter”
03 “Born In Luton”
04 “March Day”
05 “Water In The Well”
06 “Snow Day”
07 “Human, For A Minute”
08 “Great Dog”
09 “6/1”
10 “Harsh Degrees”
11 “Station Wagon”
Drunk Tank Pink is out 1/15 via Dead Oceans.
