MIDDLE KIDS NEW ALBUM TODAY WE’RE THE GREATEST OUT TODAY + TOURING THIS MAY - 3RD MELBOURNE SHOW ADDED
Photo Credit: Ellen Virgona
+ PERFORMING ON THE LATE LATE SHOW WITH JAMES CORDEN TUE 23 MAR
“Today We’re The Greatest is quietly revelatory. It’s a record that eloquently and sometimes painfully weaves tales of emotional complexity that crush and uplift in equal measure”. 4.5 STARS
- ROLLING STONE AUS
“Never has vulnerability felt so complete, never fragility so assured [...] The record displays startling intimacy for their best work yet” - 4 STARS
- DORK MAGAZINE
“Today We’re The Greatest shows a more vulnerable side to the band, allowing them to break down self imposed barriers and create a record that’s challenging, liberating and triumphant.”
- TRIPLE J FEATURE ALBUM
“Arena sized rock, masquerading as warm, thoughtful, 1980’s styled indie-rock”
- NEW YORK TIMES
“a raging inferno of distorted guitars and orchestral brass. It’s a hell of a way to introduce an album”
- STEREOGUM
“Radiant, anthemic indie rock, balancing doubt ridden lyrics with clear eyed execution”
- PITCHFORK
“I want to make music that loves its listener. Music that makes people feel seen, seen in the tiny little places that hide away in their hearts. I want people to hear our music, and feel a sense of love. And when I say love, it can be challenging, intense and tough. But it’s in the guts.” – Hannah Joy
Middle Kids have today released their sophomore album Today We’re The Greatest (out now via EMI). The album is the Sydney trio’s most personal and courageous effort to date, already garnering widespread rave reviews both locally and internationally.
Landing earlier this week, the band revealed the striking video for the album’s title track ‘Today We’re The Greatest’ - filmed in Kiama on the New South Wales southern coast. Lead singer and songwriter Hannah Joy’s performance on the song is heartachingly beautiful as she showcases the juxtaposition that makes her writing so compelling. The grandiose and romantic notion of the album’s title is offset by the repeated refrain ‘life is gory and boring sometimes’ which closes the song. Revelling equally in the good, the bad, the beautiful and ugly. Middle Kids will perform the title track next Tuesday 23 March on The Late Late Show With James Corden.
Middle Kids - Today We're The Greatest (Official Video)
With the album Today We’re The Greatest, Joy has pulled directly from her own experiences -- and broken down boundaries she’d previously set for herself. “Historically I’ve written a lot of conceptual lyrics,” she says. “Stepping into this album, I wanted to allow myself to go and write and not feel like I had any barriers to do so. I’m interested in finding the best music I can, but if I’m not willing to put skin in the game, then I’m not actually free.”
The bulk of the album was recorded in Los Angeles in October 2019 with producer Lars Stalfors (St. Vincent, Soccer Mommy, Cold War Kids) and the finishing touches were made in the early months of 2020. Middle Kids (Hannah Joy, Tim Fitz and Harry Day) relished in exploring the space between smoldering intensity and an explosive vivacity that never burns out of control; from the brassy climax of ‘Questions’ to the starkly confessional quality of 'Some People Stay in Our Hearts Forever' and the insistent gallop of 'R U 4 Me?'. They heard potential in unlikely places, as Fitz used a pair of scissors as a percussion instrument on 'Summer Hill' and repurposed a recording of birds chirping in a rain shower that he captured at their old home in Sydney for 'Golden Star'.
Album opener ‘Bad Neighbours’, a plaintive slow-burner, represents this shift in both their sound and their working dynamic as well: Joy has always been Middle Kids’ primary wordsmith, but Fitz wrote most of the lyrics for the melancholy tune, which was informed by a traumatic event from Joy’s childhood. “It was like he was giving me permission to go there, and he also [gave] actual speech to feeling, which I think was very profound for me,” she recalls. “In Hannah’s songs there’s a real vulnerability and at times a volatility that came through in [Lost Friends],” says Day. “But I feel like it came through even more in this album.”
Given the massive changes Joy went through as she was working on Today We’re The Greatest, it’s easy to see - and hear - why. Beyond her baby’s heartbeat cameo on ‘Run With You’, Joy’s journey to motherhood and her marriage with Fitz has imbued her love songs with a vibrancy that’s unabashedly romantic yet free of clichés. ‘Stacking Chairs’, with its unique allegories and Joy’s sunny vocals, strikes this delicate balance beautifully: it’s a testament to her deep connection with Fitz and the new, “infinitesimal” love that transformed their lives with their son’s arrival.
“A few years ago, I would’ve been like, ‘I can’t write a love song!’ I think it’s because love was still too tinny, too shallow for me to actually understand where I was at personally,” she says. “‘Stacking Chairs’ is a great example of that: I’m understanding love more, and I’m still a tiny, stupid idiot. But I’m going, ‘That’s something worth fighting for, and something worth celebrating, too!’”.
Today We’re The Greatest is the open, uninhibited product of fearless collaboration: these breakthroughs wouldn’t have occurred had Joy not pushed herself to plumb new, personal depths in her lyrics, or if Fitz and Day hadn’t completed them with their instrumental flourishes. From the first note to the closing title track, Middle Kids are building on the strong foundation of Lost Friends while exploring the possibilities and beautiful contradictions in every note.
“It can be easier to live dualistically” says Joy, “splitting the world in two. We want to be able say it’s this or it’s that, but sometimes it’s both - and can we hold both? Can we hold the brokenness? Can we hold the beauty? That has definitely been a defining bit of this album, the fragility in that dance.”
Middle Kids will take their album on the road this may for first headline Australian Tour in almost two years. The Today We’re The Greatest Australian Tour will see the band perform what are sure to be unforgettable nights at three of the country's most stunning seated concert spaces - Brisbane's QPAC, Melbourne Recital Centre and Sydney's City Recital Hall. The band have already sold out one of their Sydney shows and two nights in Melbourne. To meet demand, they've added a very special matineé performance on Saturday May 22 at the Melbourne Recital Centre. Tickets are on sale now, here.
TODAY WE’RE THE GREATEST TRACK LIST
1. Bad Neighbours
2. Cellophane (Brain)
3. R U 4 Me?
4. Questions
5. Lost in Los Angeles
6. Golden Star
7. Summer Hill
8. Some People Stay In Our Hearts Forever
9. Run With You
10. I Don't Care
11. Stacking Chairs
12. Today We’re The Greatest
MIDDLE KIDS | TOUR DATES
TODAY WE’RE THE GREATEST ALBUM TOUR
TICKETS ON SALE NOW HERE
Thursday 13 May - QPAC, Brisbane, AU - SELLING FAST
Friday 21 May - Melbourne Recital Centre, Melbourne, AU - SOLD OUT
Saturday 22 May - Melbourne Recital Centre, Melbourne, AU - SOLD OUT
Saturday 22 May (Matineeè) - Melbourne Recital Centre, Melbourne, AU - JUST ADDED
Friday 28 May - City Recital Hall, Sydney, AU - SOLD OUT
Saturday 29 May - City Recital Hall, Sydney, AU - SELLING FAST
MIDDLE KIDS
TODAY WE’RE THE GREATEST IS OUT NOW
