The Lawrence Arms have released new album 'Metropole' - their first in eight years - for streaming in its entirety online.
The punk stalwarts return as the trio they've always been - vocalist/bassist Brendan Kelly, vocalist/guitarist Chris McCaughan and drummer Neil Hennessey - to deliver the blistering new record, a hook-heavy collection of tracks taking influence from Jawbreaker and Propagandhi to 90's hip-hop like Outkast's 'Aquemini'.
Samples heard throughout the record create the feeling of urban isolation that saturates 'Metropole' - the sound of street musicians captured by the band on phones. A grand piano being played in the middle of the street, a horn being played by "a dude on his back in the middle of the road, so drunk he couldn't even see".
Why the long wait between albums? "Because of the way we exist as a band, it was important for us to wait until we knew we had something to say that was sharp and pointed and dynamic and incisive,” says Kelly.
“And if we didn’t have that, then we’d just rather not make a record, ‘cause fuck it.”
Stream 'Metropole' below. It's out this Friday, January 24 through Epitaph.
