Anxious have announced their second album, Bambi, due out Feb. 21 via Run For Cover (preorder). It follows their great 2022 debut LP, Little Green House, and the title comes from one of the ideas they had when they were originally naming the band. To quote their new bio:
Somewhere in the blur of endless touring, Anxious vocalist Grady Allen was sitting in a hotel room and stumbled upon a name typed into a long-forgotten memo on his phone: Bambi. “We should have named the band Bambi,” he recalls admitting to his bandmates. The tenor of the conversation is likely familiar to anyone of a certain age, when you reflect on choices that a younger version of yourself made and reckon with how things could be different if you’d chosen a different path. Bambi stuck with the band after that night and eventually it evolved from a “what-if” into the name of Anxious’ second full-length album.
[…] Inspired by “big swing” records like blink-182’s Untitled or Jimmy Eat World’s Clarity, Anxious set out to redefine the band without losing sight of what made them work in the first place. “The idea that Bambi should have been the band name sort of turned into this sentiment that got carried onto the LP,” says Allen. “Bambi is the band we could have been, that I want us to be – and I think the record is that.”
Read more: 11 songs that One Step Closer, Anxious, and Koyo are blasting on the road
The album was produced and engineered by I Am The Avalanche/the Movielife member Brett Romnes, and the band credits Romnes with helping them find the direction for this new album and avoid a sophomore slump. “He just did a fantastic job challenging us and pushing our ideas into a whole new echelon,” Allen says.
The first single is “Counting Sheep,” of which guitarist/co-vocalist Dante Melucci had this to say: “I had the idea that I could turn the vibe of the Gorillaz self-titled record into a cool Anxious track, and once I had the verse melody and the quick 16th rhythm pacing, I knew it was gonna be the best song. It’s about being lethargic and wasting your time and hiding, all because you’re too afraid to confront just about everything.” Listen and watch the Max Moore-directed video below.
Bambi tracklisting
1. “Never Said”
2. “Bambi’s Theme”
3. “Some Girls”
4. “Counting Sheep”
5. “Audrey Go Again”
6. “Head & Spine”
7. “Tell Me Why”
8. “Sunder”
9. “Next Big Star”
10. “Jacy”
11. “I’ll Be Around”
Anxious 2024-2025 tour dates
10/26 Queens, NY @ Trans-Pecos w/ Innerlove
11/02 Richmond, VA @ LTC Fest
12/13 Amherst, MA @ The Drake
12/14 Buffalo, NY @ Blissmas 2024
02/01 Boston, MA @ Something in the Way Fest