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Sep 09, 2021 By Joey Arnone Photography by Robin Laananen

Brooklyn-based synth-pop trio Nation of Language have shared their new single “A Word & A Wave.” It is the latest release from their forthcoming sophomore studio album, A Way Forward, which will be out on November 5. The song features production by Nick Millhiser, one half of fellow Brooklyn synth-pop duo Holy Ghost! Watch the video below.

Songwriter/vocalist Ian Devaney speaks about the new song in a press release:

“I was thinking a lot about simple social gestures and how randomly important they can be in key moments. How empowering it can feel when someone remembers your name; how slighted you can feel when someone you only kind of know passes by without acknowledgment. The song is a kind of vignette on someone who desperately wants to be the one that makes everyone feel good and has in turn neglected themself. Trying as hard as they can to be there for people who are barely in their lives, hoping that this will bring meaning and fulfillment, when it really just ends up leaving them emotionally spent and scattered.”

He adds: “When writing the song, I kept finding myself imagining this person living in Portland, Maine. It’s never mentioned in the lyrics, but I found myself wishing I could have conveyed the rest of the scene I pictured—a warmly lit room on a calm overcast evening in a small coastal city. When it came time to make the video I saw our chance and decided we would journey up there and follow that vision as much as we could.”

Previously shared singles from A Way Forward are “Across That Fine Line” (one of our Songs of the Week), “Wounds of Love” (another one of our Songs of the Week), and “This Fractured Mind” (also one of our Songs of the Week). The band’s debut album, Introduction, Presence, was released in 2020.

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