Savages Detail New Album ‘Adore Life,’ Unveil First Video ‘The Answer’
UK post-punk group Savages will release their sophomore album on January 22nd, unveiling the 10-song track list for Adore Life and a video for the album’s first single, “The Answer.” The band recorded the new material in April at London’s RAK Studios with producer Johnny Hostile and engineer Richard Woodcraft.
Adore Life may be more intense than the group’s debut album, 2013’s Silence Yourself. “We wanted to write the hardest, most extreme songs we could ever write,” singer Jehnny Beth told Rolling Stone of the then-untitled album in May. She added that while love songs made their way into the writing sessions, “there’s still a lot of anger.” One song that made the album cut is “Adore,” which Beth said is about “All the choices we make that are supposed to be good for us are always going to hurt someone else.”
The band released a statement about Adore Life expanding on the album’s themes. “It’s about change and the power to change,” they wrote. “It’s about metamorphosis and evolution. It’s about sticking to your guns and toughing it out. It’s about now, not tomorrow. It’s about recognizing your potential. It’s about self-doubt and inaction. It’s about you. It’s about me. It’s about you and me and the others. It’s about the choices we make.
“It’s about finding the poetry and avoiding the cliché. It’s about being the solution, not the problem. It’s about showing weakness to be strong. It’s about digging through your dirt to look for diamonds. It’s about claiming your right to think unacceptable thoughts. It’s about boredom and the things we do to drive it away. It’s about being on your own so you can be with people. It’s about knowing what it means to be human and what it might mean one day. It’s about the parts and the sum of the parts. It’s about the music and the message: together, one and the same. It’s about bass, guitars, drums, and vocals. It’s about opening-out and never, ever dying. But most of all it’s about love, every kind of love. Love is the answer.”
The three-and-a-half-minute video for “The Answer” captures the intensity of Savages‘ riveting live shows. In the clip, Savages perform in a sunlit room surrounded by headbanging fans who thrash along to the propulsive song. “Love is the answer,” Beth sings. Mirroring their concert performances, the band’s interaction and engagement with the audience is highlighted and the clip showcases the sweaty fervency that ensues during their sets.
“We’ve observed our audience all around the world and noticed that something is happening. People want to be pushed to do good, or to be good, or just to feel good,” the band said. “We wanted a very intense video, that felt like banging your head against the wall, focusing on our audience: a portrait of our crowd, an homage to music lovers and the good people who are coming to gigs and shouting their lungs out, or just smiling at the back. We were touched by them every night, and wanted to get their message out there: loud guitar music is still alive and still connects people.”
Adore Life Track List
1. “The Answer”
2. “Evil”
3. “Sad Person”
4. “Adore”
5. “I Need Something New”
6. “Slowing Down The World”
7. “When In Love”
8. “Surrender”
9. “T.I.W.Y.G.”
10. “Mechanics”