“glittering synth-washed sounds comparable to M83 and Chromatics” – Beats Per Minute
LOS ANGELES (March 27, 2020) – A survival guide for the seemingly apocalyptic times, Heartour announces the release of the upcoming album, R U IN. Heartour’s Jason Young deploys a kaleidoscope of sound with themes spanning from overcoming mental hurdles to the downright destruction of life as we know it. A technicolor amalgamation of indie pop, synthwave, and synth-pop, the genre-defying album was mixed by Tony Hoffer (Metric, Beck & M83). The album is due out May 22.
R U IN begins with “Brain” exposing the overwhelming unrest of anxiety with a holistic surge of endorphins cast in a buzzing neon glow. It’s a get-up-and-dance anthem to shake off all the fears that are draining our brain. “Refill the Fountain” lets us escape into an alternate world where simpler times are punctuated with 80s Atari-esque bleeps and blops. By the time the melodic soundscape reaches “Let The Robots Drive,” its alternate reality becomes more clear. The song manages the what-ifs that capture our fearful internal world. It’s a drive down a vacant highway with signs still flickering in gas station windows as plastic bags blow like tumbleweeds in the wind. “Dreams To Come” jars the focus back into fragmented reality as you realize you never left the comfort of your home, you’ve been submitting to a portrait of yesterday hidden behind prefabricated filters.
The album in its entirety flows in and out of this consciousness, dancing between the duality of nightmare and daydream. But fortunately, R U IN leaves an encrypted roadmap to find sanctuary in the dusty, mechanical haze. Words from “Dear Future” echo in the aftermath, saying “Let’s rewind the future we know.” Will mankind ride on the train of oblivion, or will we wake up before the last stop calls?
R U IN Track Listing
- Brain
- Refill the Fountain
- Let the Robots Drive
- Dreams to Come
- As Far As We Go
- Eye on the Ball
- Bubbling
- The Persuadable One
- Dear Future
- Baby Spiders
About Heartour
For some artists, the spark for a record comes from a chord or a lyric. For Heartour’s Jason Young, it started with an image: Three album covers sketched in a notebook before a single bar had been written. It’s been nine years since Young released his fourth and most recent album as Heartour, but the intervening years have produced anything but downtime. Young’s other project, The Ruse, opened for Muse on three separate tours. When the band took a hiatus shortly thereafter, Young decided it was time to go back into the studio and create something personal once again, and the dynamic electronic soundscape of the upcoming album R U IN was born.
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Praise for Heartour
“full of whimsical and feel-good melodies, touched with just a bit of wistfulness and wonder” (2019) – Too Much Love
“Young’s powerful but silky vocals rise over an amalgam of heavy synths, creating a unique scape as if meant to simultaneously hypnotize and pump up a festival full of people.” (2019) – The Hype Magazine
“extra prolific” – Christos Doukakis, Last Day Deaf
“The sense of wonder pervading the song makes it an upbeat, even exhilarating, listening experience.” (2019) – Michael Stover, Music Existence