STANDING ROOM ONLY<\/p>\n
AMERICAN AQUARIUM
\n20 years. 20 records. Over 4,000 shows. And somehow, American Aquarium are still finding new ways to surprise us. On New Ways to Lose, frontman BJ Barham and his band of road warriors turn two decades of survival into a driving, deeply-felt rock & roll statement \u2014 one built on resilience, reinvention, and the hard-earned clarity that only comes with time.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve always been outsiders,\u201d says Barham, whose songwriting has steered the group through lineup changes, heartache, addiction, recovery, a global pandemic, and every other obstacle imaginable. Long before algorithms and viral breakthroughs spelled out success in the music industry, American Aquarium earned their place the old-school way: through relentless touring and a stubborn refusal to disappear, even when the odds suggested they should. New Ways to Lose turns that outsider status into armor.<\/p>\n
Produced once again by multi-time Grammy winner Shooter Jennings, the album was recorded in Los Angeles over a 10-day session that captured the band at their most immediate and alive. Much of the record was tracked live, with Jennings encouraging spontaneity and instinct over perfection, while a round of overdubs offered the opportunity to add three-part harmonies and horn arrangements to the songs. The result is a muscular, cinematic record that embraces both sides of American Aquarium\u2019s identity: the bruised confessionals of a songwriter who\u2019s already spent decades sharpening his craft, and the full-throttle release of an anthemic, amplified rock & roll band. Hot-wired with the same electricity as their live show, New Ways to Lose nods to heartland heroes like Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, and Neil Young while remaining unmistakably American Aquarium.<\/p>\n
For Barham \u2014 who formed the band in 2006 in Raleigh, North Carolina \u2014 the album isn\u2019t just a snapshot on a band at its peak. It\u2019s a personal turning point, too. \u201cAll of my records are yearbooks,\u201d he says. \u201cTwenty years from now, I\u2019ll pull them off the shelf and remember exactly who I was when I wrote them.\u201d If earlier albums offered glimpses of a man in his 20s, making his way through a haze of uncertainty, heartache, and bad behavior, then New Ways to Lose finds Barham writing from a place of hard-won maturity. He\u2019s not just a songwriter anymore; he\u2019s a husband, father, and bandleader who\u2019s fully comfortable confronting the dark corners of the human experience. Across these ten songs, he tackles themes like the downfall of small-town America, the yearning for true connection, the socioeconomic wreckage of unconstitutional politics, and even the devastation of losing a beloved pet, making room for tenderness and gratitude amidst the sonic stomp of his band. \u201cTwin Flames,\u201d written for his wife, stands as one of the most vulnerable love songs of his whole career, a reflection of a full-grown man no longer afraid to say exactly what he means.<\/p>\n
The album\u2019s title comes from legendary NC State Wolfpack announcer Gary Hahn, whose on-air quips \u2014 \u201cand NC State finds a new way to lose today\u201d \u2014 became metaphors for both sports fandom and the music business. \u201cNo matter what success you find, you\u2019re always looking up the ladder at what you don\u2019t have,\u201d says Barham, who\u2019s hand-carved a fiercely independent career outside the traditional machinery of the industry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
STANDING ROOM ONLY AMERICAN AQUARIUM 20 years. 20 records. Over 4,000 shows. And somehow, American Aquarium are still finding new ways to surprise us. On New Ways to Lose, frontman […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":95549,"template":"","meta":{"_tribe_events_status":"","_tribe_events_status_reason":"","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"tribe_events_cat":[],"class_list":["post-95547","tribe_events","type-tribe_events","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\n