Utah pop-rockers Neon Trees return with the release today (September 20) of their fifth and latest album Sink Your Teeth. It’s the quartet’s first new studio release in over four years, and it combines the raucous rock sounds of their early days with the more glossy pop sheen of later works. Frontman Tyler Glenn has said given the lengthy gaps between albums, he feels grateful fans still care about what he, guitarist Chris Allen, bassist Branden Campbell, and drummer Elaine Bradley are still doing. But with tracks this good, why wouldn’t they?
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Glenn recently sat down for a video call with American Songwriter to discuss his thoughts on the four favorite songs we chose from the album.
“El Diablo”
One of the pre-release singles, this buoyant track has a party-hearty vibe to it, and the group added it to their recent summer run of dates supporting 311 and AWOLNATION.
“It’s such a nice live moment, and I think it captures the energy of our shows,” Glenn declares. “I love our albums, but sometimes I feel like we haven’t always captured the kinetic energy that we put out in our shows. And I think that song really accomplishes that. So it’s a really fun one, and it’s also one I wrote in the heart of the pandemic. That and ‘Losing My Head’ were two I did with Joe Janiak. He produced those two, and they just have this quality to them that’s really unique. I was pretty raw and angry and freaked out during that time, like we all were. I think that comes across in the song.”
“Acting”
An unusual, stripped-down animal in the Neon Trees realm, this poignant ballad, featuring only acoustic guitar and delicate synths, expresses the melancholy of being in a one-sided relationship yet struggling to break free of it. The song also serves up oral sex references in the chorus – in this case, they also act as a metaphor for blowing up someone’s ego and being devoted, but getting nothing in return.
“I wanted it to shock a little,” Glenn admits. “I wanted it to feel a little uncomfortable. It was actually the last song I wrote for the record, and it was this prompt from my manager, honestly. He was like, ‘I want you to just write something super raw.’ I’d had the refrain, You can keep acting like you don’t care / and I’ll keep acting like I do. And it was in another song maybe three years ago that I recorded, and I always loved that idea. I listened to the old demo, and it was super not what I was going for. I almost wrote a poem and then used that refrain, and it just really satisfied what I was trying to accomplish with the tone of the song and what I was feeling. But I wanted it to be a little shocking.
“Me and Elaine have butted heads on lyrics over the years with content,” continues Glenn, “but she’s become this amazing, really open-minded person. She was the one I was a little nervous to show the song to. She cried, and she was very moved by it. That made me feel like, if she gets what I was going for, then I think let’s put it out. I’m glad it’s on there. It’s a cool little moment on the record.”
“Heaven”
I do drugs / I love sex / I have complicated friends / I don’t really think they’d hate it if they let me into Heaven.
The infectiously catchy “Heaven” feels like the lighter version of the raucous “Habits” from their debut album. Whereas that original song was more openly unapologetic about vices and hedonism, this tune hints at some sort of redemption from them.
“You’re putting a light bulb in it,” Glenn muses to me. “Actually, I thought [new song] ‘Bad Dreams’ was a sister song to ‘Sleeping with a Friend,’ in a way. That’s interesting when you bring that up—it must just be the thread of my life that I keep referencing, that sort of shame that I’ve tried to unwire from, whether it’s from religion, or closet life, or whatever. I’ll have to go back and look into that.”
He adds “Heaven” is “almost a declaration of something I felt I needed to say, and [it’s] another song where I wondered if Elaine’s gonna like this. It’s actually her favorite song on the record. Her kids love it too, which is hilarious.”
“Losing My Head”
Another song that deals with hedonism and desire—I’m out on the edge / I guess I found my way back by losing my head—it feels like Glenn is seeking a trajectory through his emotional maze. Many of his lyrics over the years have expressed a yearning for something deeper and more grounded in his life, and this new wave-ish song is no exception.
“I am just constantly trying to find that balance,” the singer says. “Even though I think there’s a reason why we’re not necessarily saying they’re pandemic songs, I don’t mind talking about when I wrote them. Because I think the theme and the thematics in at least some of those rawer lyrics and songs are still appropriate to how I feel today. We’re going into an election, and there’s an uneasiness in the country. There has been for years and years now, and there’s a palpable uneasiness inside of me. There’s this storm that I’m always trying to quell. I think there’s a yearning to just have a stillness and try to sit and make sense of everything. Obviously, music is my outlet. It’s gonna come off sometimes a little manic and a little self-referential too.”
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