Lauren Denitzio’s long-running indie-punk project Worriers just released their album Warm Blanket in April, and they’ve already announced plans to follow it with a whole new LP called Trust Your Gut. Where Warm Blanket was recorded at home, Trust Your Gut is a full-on studio affair. Denitzio produced the album, and they’re backed up by longtime collaborators Atom Willard and Frank Piegaro, as well as the Hold Steady keyboardist Franz Nicolay and Cayetana bassist Allegra Anka.

The Trust Your Gut title track is both bittersweet and anthemic, and it’s got some serious fired-up ’80s pop in its DNA. I think of Franz Nicolay as the guy pounding out piano riffs in the Hold Steady, but there’s some serious Laura Branigan in his synth-work here. Good song! For the video, director Chelsea Christer takes inspiration from Empire Records in telling a story about saving a local queer bar. Here’s what Denitzio says about it:

This is some of the most fun I’ve ever had writing and recording a song, so I wanted the video to come from an equally fun and joyous place. The song is meant to celebrate learning to trust your intuition and advocate for yourself and your own time, even in the face of being told that everything is fine. I thought it would be a good match for the video to be an interpretation of Empire Records where we’re saving a queer bar instead of a record store — just a fun way to claim space and community and see yourself in something when outside forces are working against you. Queer interpretations are some of my favorite things to talk about, and I’ll never turn down a chance to incorporate queer joy into our work!

Below, check out the “Trust Your Gut” video and the new album’s tracklist.

TRACKLIST:
01 “Hold My Breath”
02 “Trust Your Gut”
03 “I’m Not Mad”
04 “Waste Of Space”
05 “Backyard Garden”
06 “Cloudy And 55”
07 “Anything Else”
08 “Losing The Thread”
09 “Charming”
10 “Math”
11 “Top 5”
12 “Friends Or Something”

Trust Your Gut is out 9/15 on Ernest Jenning Record Co.