Wolf Parade Announce New Album Thin Mind, Share Punchy Single “Forest Green”

Wolf Parade’s return to music has arrived with a fair share of cautionary tales for the modern era. Since 2017’s Cry Cry Cry, the Montreal indie-rock trio have been reflecting on the increasingly oversaturated lifestyle created by the technology of our times, crafting their criticisms into a project that looks in the mirror of the present and finds ominous darkness looming in the near future.

This project has been revealed today (Nov. 11) as Thin Mind, Wolf Parade’s fifth studio album, which will be out in January of next year. The announcement comes alongside the release of the album’s second single, an energetic trek into the intrigue and mystery within the woods called “Forest Green.”

The first two singles off Thin Mind both detail the downfall of society, but where the first, “Against the Day,” follows the rise of urban anarchist governments forming in the wake of collapse, “Forest Green” retreats into the desolate woods for refuge. The song immediately places the listener in its driving rhythm punctuated by a crunchy guitar and shining synth. Singer Dan Boeckner’s yelps remain the song’s focus as he descends into forest life, singing, “I only stay here for survival / Every day is like the one before, it seems.”

The song in many ways resembles the Yorgos Lanthimos-directed film The Lobster, where—without giving too much away—an anarchist group assembles itself in the woods as a rebellion against modern society’s bizarre civil conduct. Listening to the synth-driven “Forest Green,” one quote from the movie comes to mind: “We dance alone. That’s why we only play electronic music.”

“Forest Green” takes its inspiration from the natural beauty of Vancouver Island, where Thin Mind was recorded. As drummer Arlen Thompson explains, the forested splendor of the island is under threat from human industry as it tightens its choking grip around the land:

The island has a really weird, pervasive darkness to it. It’s got amazing nature, and there’s an inescapable spiritual vibe to the place. But it’s held with this tension between real estate money and nature now constantly being logged and developed. It’s a process that’s been happening for maybe 150 years—you’re watching this beautiful place just kind of melt.

Thin Mind is expected to further illustrate these horror stories from the Anthropocene—the era of humankind’s dominion over the earth. As Thompson explains, the group is united in their rising fear for our increasingly caustic society and how it will continue to advance upon our human wellbeing:

This record is very personal, but at the same time, we’re all coming from the same place of a general sense of anxiety. How do you deal with the constant barrage of having your opinions swayed by all these different actors when you don’t know who they are or what their purpose is? There is no normal anymore.