Lower Dens releasing 'The Competition' - listen to "Young Republicans"

Baltimore’s Lower Dens are back with a new album, The Competition, due out September 6 via Ribbon Music. It’s their first since 2015’s Escape from Evil and you can see the album art and tracklisting below. About the new release, lead singer and songwriter Jana Hunter says, “the issues that have shaped my life, for better or for worse, have to do with coming from a family and a culture that totally bought into this competitive mindset. I was wild and in a lot of pain as a kid; home life was very bleak, and pop songs were a guaranteed escape to a mental space where beauty, wonder, and love were possible. I wanted to write songs that might have the potential to do that.”

The band has shared first single “Young Republicans” and its accompanying video, directed by Raul Gonzo, which you can watch below.

UPDATE: Ribbon Music shared a note about the new song. They write, “turns out, regardless of how immediate, not to mention relevant, we believe this song to be, a handful of select radio programmers (close partners, in fact) unanimously agreed this song was, based solely on its subject matter and title, ‘too controverisal,’ ‘too hot,’ ‘a song we probably could not get behind.’ Naturally we (the label) considered pivoting songs in hopes of securing the faintest assurance of support. In the end however it was decided that this record is about competition, and the artist’s intention – as it should be – is to compete in getting the message of the music across first. Thank you Jana, for your steadfastness in this regard! This song is as important to its songwriters as it is to us, and as important to the album as it is to the timing that it is released. Further, Radio will always have time to redeem itself, and there will be plenty of songs to follow. To be fair, radio has to date never fully embraced the band, but to be dismissed without even being heard (in certain instances only) is something to push back against vs. give up on.”
Read the note in full below.

Lower Dens – The Competition Tracklisting
01. Galapagos
02. Hand Of God
03. Two Faced Love
04. Young Republicans
05. Real Thing
06. Buster Keaton
07. I Drive
08. Simple Life
09. Empire Sundown
10. Lucky People
11. In Your House