ST. PAUL & THE BROKEN BONES ANNOUNCE 6TH STUDIO ALBUM, THE SELF TITLED ST. PAUL & THE BROKEN BONES OUT OCTOBER VIA THEIR OWN LABEL OASIS PIZZA RECORDS, DISTRIBUTED BY THIRTY TIGERSSHARE FIRST SINGLE AND VIDEO FOR “SUSHI AND COCA-COLA“
St. Paul & The Broken Bones, who NPR Music has hailed as “one of the nation’s best live bands,” announces the release of their 6th studio album, the self-titled St. Paul & The Broken Bones, out on October 10th out via their own label Oasis Pizza Records, distributed by Thirty Tigers. The new album from the ever-evolving Southern-soul giants, signifies both a reinvention and a reunion, stretching out with the confident experimental spirit of The Alien Coast and (2022) and Angels in Science Fiction (2023), but with a warmer, accessible and fun sound that recalls the exuberance and buoyancy of their breakout debut, Half the City (2014). “It’s the outcome of the book we wrote with the last records,” Janeway says, “The self-titled album is what the band is now. I think the band in general feels reignited. I’ve had this conversation with bassist and co-founder Jesse Phillips, who said, ‘I don’t know where we can take this. But we have the opportunity to make any kind of record we want. Before, the band thought, ‘How far can we take it?'” Now? “It’s ‘What is the bandgreat at? What lessons have we learned?’” St. Paul & The Broken Bones is available for pre-order on all formats here.
The band also shares St. Paul & the Broken Bones’s first single, “Sushi and Coca-Cola,” a psych-funk track that shines a light on a moment of domestic bliss. “I was sitting in my living room, drinking a Mexican Coca-Cola and having some sushi—as on-point as it can be—with my wife and little girl,” Janeway recalls. “I felt, ‘Man, this is a great place.’ You know how you have moments that feel like a warm bath’? This is one that me and Eg were writing, and I’d been saving it.’ I just like the way [the title] sang. I think everyone at first thought, ‘That’s weirdly specific.’ Had I just said ‘dinner and a drink,’ that doesn’t do it. We came up with this scenario about having a shit day but finding the comfort in that thing.” Listen to “Sushi and Coca-Cola” here and watch the music video, directed by Mathew Daniel Siskin here.
With the new LP, co-written and produced with the decorated Eg White (Adele, Florence + The Machine, Sam Smith) and tracked with the band – consisting of Janeway, Phillips, guitarist Browan Lollar, drummer Kevin Leon, keyboardist Al Gamble, trumpeter Allen Branstetter, saxophonist Amari Ansari, and trombonist Chad Fisher— at the renowned FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, the band decided to stop pushing so hard and simply focus on classic “song craft.” For Janeway, these 10 thrilling tunes feel like “comfort food,” like hanging out at a “great barbecue joint.”
The album follows 2023’s Angels In Science Fiction and with that vibrant era in the rear view, there was an opportunity to regroup, which resulted in a return to their roots, if through a circuitous path. Janeway started collaborating with a series of co-writers and featured artists, eventually finding the perfect partner in White: a prolific, London-based pop-rock veteran who’s co-written and produced hits with stars like Adele (“Chasing Pavements”) and Celine Dion (“Water and a Flame”). Aided by that expert ear, Janeway finished a batch of new music he was proud of—but he pivoted back to full-band mode in January ’24, regrouping with his old friends at FAME Studios, where they’d mixed their debut, Half the City, over a decade earlier.
It had been several years since they’d written together in this format and the session and Phillips asked an intriguing question: ‘Hey, man, can I hear some of the stuff you wrote with Eg White?” Janeway was initially reluctant to bring this music “into the band sphere,” but his co-founder convinced him otherwise. They dusted off some of those tracks, melding them with the new group-written material, “Basically our philosophy for the record was ‘best song wins,'” the frontman says.
The resulting songs felt like a comforting hug, lived in, confident, and fun. “Fall Moon,” includes a rippling Hammond organ and nostalgic brass; the bluesy “I saw the light” with a chorus of the swaggering “Ooo-Wee”; the stabbing electric keys and signature falsetto sweetness on “I Think You Should Know”; the deep-pocket bass and growling hooks on “Nothing More Lonely”; the breezy slice-of-life that is “Seagulls,” St. Paul still branches out in subtle ways stretching out the experimental muscles the band has developed over the years.
With St. Paul & the Broken Bones, Janeway felt like they’d taken their sonic searching as far it could go—or at least “without doing some kind of death-metal album.” But it raised a lot of important questions: “‘What are we doing? What is the band now?’ You go through that kind of identity-crisis stuff. What is the band, and is this still creatively satisfying?” The answer is a resounding yes. “Making this record was a long journey, but I think it’s one of those rare times where it felt really worth it,” Janeway says. “It feels very much like a renewed energy. And who knows? We might make our death metal record next.”
ST. PAUL & THE BROKEN BONES – ST. PAUL & THE BROKEN BONES TRACKLISTING
1. Sushi and Coca-Cola
2. Fall Moon
3. Ooo-Wee
4. Sitting In The Corner
5. I Think You Should Know
6. Nothing More Lonely
7. Stars Above
8. Seagulls
9. Change a Life
10. Going Back
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