Trace Mountains, the project of LVL UP’s Dave Benton, has announced that his new album Into The Burning Blue arrives this September. Its lead single “In A Dream” is out now.

The follow-up to Trace Mountains’ 2021 album HOUSE OF CONFUSION, Into The Burning Blue began to transpire after Benton’s eight-year-long relationship came to an end. That frantic major life change translated into some new sounds on the record, often using a drum machine and drawing inspiration from ’80s music. “In A Dream” follows Benton through a nighttime bike ride, reflecting on his own place in capitalist America as he looks through the windows of people’s homes. Here’s what Benton says about the track:

From the start of the record-making process, Craig and I envisioned “In A Dream” as the opening track,” shares Benton, “On an album that is largely auto-biographical and very personal in nature, it felt vital to begin in a place with a bit of worldview. Especially now, in an election year in the US, I think it’s meaningful to acknowledge the state-inflicted suffering and denial of life that happens here and all over the world. There are so many kinds of Dreams, some are nightmares, some are fantasies, some are very real hopes for one’s future. With “In A Dream” I wanted to explore the universal idea of Dreams – the ones that come at night and the day, what they mean, and who gets to have them.

Listen to that and see the Into The Burning Blue tracklist below.

TRACKLIST:
01 “In A Dream”
02 “Hard To Accept”
03 “Friend”
04 “Ponies”
05 “Crawling Back To You”
06 “Gone & Done”
07 “Melt”
08 “Cry Cry Cry”
09 “Won’t Go Home”

Into The Burning Blue is out 9/27 via Lame-O.