Archers of Loaf will release Reason In Decline, their first new full-length studio album since 1998’s White Trash Heroes on October 21 via Merge. The band consisting of Eric Bachmann (singer/guitar), Eric Johnson (guitar), Matt Gentling (bass) and Mark Price (drums) previewed the LP by unveiling its lead single, “In The Surface Noise.”
A tour in support of Reason To Decline launches in Baltimore on November 29. Archers Of Loaf will then hit Philadelphia on November 30, Boston on December 1, Brooklyn on December 2 and Richmond on December 3 before concluding the short run in Asheville on December 4. Purchase tickets on Ticketmaster starting this Friday, July 15 at 10 a.m. ET.
The quartet aimed to finally issue a new album after reuniting for concerts in 2015 but Bachmann wasn’t feeling the process of writing new songs for the band. “For Archers lyrics, songs, everything, I had to imagine I was this angry white curmudgeon college guy who hates capitalism and consumerism and has a broken heart,” Bachmann explained. “He’s bitter about relationships, so he makes fun of things to seem cool. As I’ve aged, I’m far less like that anymore, but it is a part of my personality. I just wasn’t excited about re-energizing it. I used that guy as a starting point to get myself out of the gate, but in the course of writing the actual songs, he eventually went away.”
When the pandemic started, Bachmann found himself in a tough position as a full-time stay-at-home parent that couldn’t earn money by touring or performing. “I’m 51, I’ve been [writing and playing music] since I was 14,” he added. “I’ve been doing it for a living since I was 22, that’s 37 years. For the first time, when COVID happened, I couldn’t do it. It was a massive psychological setback, to the point that I had to get help. I already had a problem with suicide ideation, constantly thinking about this shit. And I’m not ashamed to say that. Thousands and thousands of people have the same problem. Anyway, all this got baked into the songs.”
Eric Bachmann put his angst into his lyrics like he had done in the past but this time from the perspective of an adult. The 10-track Reason In Decline is described in press materials as “no nostalgic, low-impact reboot.” Bachmann was excited to record with his bandmates and take advantage of how well they perform as a unit. “What I really think about going back to the Archers and doing a new record is that the three other members of this band are awesome,” Eric noted. “It’s not about responding to the past or whatever our bullshit legacy is. I just wanted to work with these guys because I knew the chemistry we had and that we still have. I knew that was rare.”
The furious “In The Surface Noise” arrived with a lyric video. “We didn’t intend for this song to be political and it was written through a personal lens but as sometimes happens the lyrics (‘what’s more for them ain’t less for you’) ended up being more universal,” Bachmann said of the song. Watch Archers Of Loaf’s “In The Surface Noise” lyric video below:
Reason In Decline Tracklist
- Human
- Saturation and Light
- Screaming Undercover
- Mama Was a War Profiteer
- Aimee
- In the Surface Noise
- Breaking Even
- Misinformation Age
- The Moment You End
- War Is Wide Open
