Spanish Love Songs are back with “Good American”, the first taste of their forthcoming album “Future Nausea”, due 6 November via Pure Noise Records. And this is an interesting one because, despite everything going on beneath the surface, it is a bloody enjoyable song.
There is a driving four on the floor rhythm, rolling bass and a huge rock energy that makes “Good American” feel built for a sweaty club rather than quiet reflection. It is angry, but it moves. You can hear the band wanting people to dance, shout and lose themselves in it.
That contrast makes the song work. Dylan Slocum wrote it after recalling veterans he delivered pizzas to at a VA hospital during the War on Terror, connecting those experiences with stories of people abandoned by the institutions that once promised them belonging.
“It’s an angry song. Maybe the angriest song I’ve ever written” Slocum says. The band’s intention, however, was not to create another miserable experience. “We want people dancing and shouting like they’re at a packed out basement show“.
Slocum says he wanted “Future Nausea” to be “a big rock record“, inspired by the widescreen sound of albums such as “Born In The U.S.A.”, while making it “as angry politically as it could be“.
But perhaps the most revealing comment is this: “More angry than sad. I actually think this is the least sad record we’ve ever made“.
If “Good American” is the indication, that sounds like a very good direction for Spanish Love Songs. The world may be a mess, but apparently there is still room to turn the volume up and dance about it.
