After a whirlwind couple of years, Bartees Strange will return with his third album, Horror, arriving Feb. 14 via 4AD. The follow-up to 2022’s Farm to Table includes production work from Jack Antonoff and Yves and Lawrence Rothman.
“In a way, I think I made this record to reach out to people who may feel afraid of things in their lives, too,” Strange says. “For me, it’s love, locations, cosmic bad luck, or that feeling of doom that I’ve struggled with for as long as I can remember. I think that it’s easier to navigate the horrors and strangeness of life once you realize that everyone around you feels the same. This album is just me trying to connect. I’m trying to shrink the size of the world. I’m trying to feel close — so I’m less afraid.”
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The LP includes the freeway love song “Lie 95” and the tender, heartland-leaning new single “Sober” that’s out today. The latter comes with a video directed by Ricardo Betancourt that references Sly and the Family Stone’s 1974 Soul Train performance. “This song is about falling short in a relationship, over and over, and drinking because of it,” he continues. “I think this is something a lot of people can probably relate to. Being in love, but not being the best at showing it or feeling successful within it. And being afraid that this is something you’ll always deal with because you never really saw a better example of how love works.”
See the video for “Sober” below.
Horror tracklisting
- “Too Much”
- “Hit It Quit It”
- “Sober”
- “Baltimore”
- “Lie 95”
- “Wants Needs”
- “Lovers”
- “Doomsday Buttercup”
- “17”
- “Loop Defenders”
- “Norf Gun”
- “Backseat Banton”
