Shannon and The Clams are known for their up-beat blend of retro-infused garage-psych, but the band is going to a different emotional level with their new record The Moon Is In The Wrong Place. They released the title single today (January 25) along with a video. With this album, the band takes listeners on a surreal journey through grief.
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The Moon Is In The Wrong Place is out on May 10, 2024. It was produced with longtime collaborator and half of The Black Keys, Dan Auerbach. Sonically, it is described as nothing else the band has done before, moving through conflicting and contrasting emotions and from shades of black and white to screaming Technicolor. It explores vocalist Shannon Shaw’s grief at suddenly losing her fiancé in a tragic car accident in August 2022, weeks before their wedding.
This is a deeply personal album for both Shaw and The Clams, who were all close with Shaw’s fiancé, Joe Haener. The band produced this album through the trauma and grief of Haener’s death. They go to new emotional and musical depths as described in a press release.
Shannon and The Clams Release First Single From Personal New Album
As for the title track, it is gutting and psychedelic in turn. Shannon Shaw’s gritty vocals shine through in the pleading chorus. It contains heartbroken lines like, The sun burned out when you left this world / Now there is some imposter in the sky, and I spy seafoam, I spy olive, I spy golden candlelight / I spy something that you told me in the last week of our lives.
“We all felt the urgency of making something that reckoned with this meteor that smashed into our planet,” said keyboardist Will Sprott in a press release. “This is the most focused album we’ve ever done, as far as everything coming from a singular traumatic event.”
The album goes through many different levels of grief, according to the press release. Shaw sings of a rare moment of peace amidst the chaos on “Bean Fields.” In the closing track “Life is Unfair” she declares Life is unfair, yet beautiful / I see it now.
In support of the new album, Shannon and The Clams will be touring throughout 2024. Ticket presale opens on January 26 at 10 am local time and ends on January 30. General sale opens on January 31 at 10 am Eastern.
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Featured Image by Jim Herrington
