Built to Spill Announce When the Wind Forgets Your Name, First New Album in 7 Years
The animated video for lead single "Gonna Lose" is out now
Art by Alex Graham
Indie-rock institution Built to Spill have announced their first new album since 2015’s Untethered Moon, titled When the Wind Forgets Your Name, coming Sept. 9 on Sub Pop—the band’s debut release on the label. Lead single “Gonna Lose” is out now, with a music video directed by Jordan Minkoff, and animated by Minkoff and Lee McClure, and the band have also set more than 70 headlining, festival and support shows for 2022.
“Gonna Lose” is a heady reintroduction to Built to Spill, not to mention the loosest and liveliest the band have sounded in a long while. Boisterous garage-rock guitar riffage accompanies Doug Martsch’s hooky depictions of an unbridgeable gulf between perception and reality—he sings about “being on acid in a dream,” remarking, “I thought I was done with that kind of fun,” and insisting that you’re “Gonna lose your mind” like he’s threatening you with a good time. There’s both wisdom and excitement in that act of letting go: “I’ve come to realize time’s all wrong / Answers materialize, then they’re gone,” Martsch sings serenely in the bridge, as if to say insanity is the only sane response to wild times.
Built to Spill mastermind Martsch recorded When the Wind Forgets Your Name alongside two members of the Brazilian psychedelic jazz-rock band Oruã: lo-fi punk artist and producer Le Almeida, and his long-time collaborator João Luiz. Oruã will support Built to Spill in the fall, performing separately, while Built to Spill’s latest lineup—Martsch, bassist Melanie Radford and drummer Teresa Esguerra—will play the band’s new material live. The band’s ninth studio album, When the Wind Forgets Your Name is produced by Martsch; mixed by Martsch, Lê Almeida, João Casaes and Josh Lewis; and mastered by Mell Dettmer. Comic artist Alex Graham (Fantagraphics Books’ Dog Biscuits) designed the album’s cover art, and illustrated a 50-panel comic strip for the album’s CD, LP and cassette gatefold.
Built to Spill’s tour slate spans this spring, late summer and fall, kicking off with a four-night stand supporting Jawbreaker at Chicago’s House of Blues, and running through a Sept. 24 show at Salt Lake City’s Metro Music Hall. Along with the aforementioned Oruã, Prism Bitch, Itchy Kitty, Wetface, Blood Lemon, The French Tips, Sunbathe, Distant Family, and Braided Waves will provide support across various dates. “The tour will feature songs from When the Wind Forgets Your Name along with fan favorites from the band’s catalog,” a press release assures. You’ll find ticket info here.
See the “Gonna Lose” video below, plus a 2012 Built to Spill show from the Paste archives, and find the details of When the Wind Forgets Your Name further down, along with the band’s tour dates.
When the Wind Forgets Your Name Tracklist:
1. Gonna Lose
2. Fool’s Gold
3. Understood
4. Elements
5. Rock Steady
6. Spiderweb
7. Never Alright
8. Alright
9. Comes a Day