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Mar 08, 2023 By Mark Redfern Photography by John MacKay

Brooklyn-based synth-pop trio Nation of Language have shared a new song, “Sole Obsession,” via a music video, and have also announced some new tour dates. The band have also revealed that their next album will be titled Strange Disciple (further details on the album are still forthcoming). John MacKay directed the video, which was shot in 16mm and filmed in Queens and at Manhattan’s Fort Tryon Park. Watch it below, followed by the band’s upcoming tour dates.

Nation of Language’s Ian Devaney and Aidan Noell collectively had this to say about the new song in a press release: “In simplest terms, ‘Sole Obsession’ is one about knowing when, or if, to give in or give up. Particularly, when to untie the knots we tie ourselves into when an infatuation sets in. So many of us have experienced an addictive feeling that constricts us further and further until, hopefully, there’s a moment of clarity that allows one to free themself from that particular compulsion. The title of our next album, Strange Disciple, is a lyric from ‘Sole Obsession’ which references a character of such a nature; one who finds themself an adherent to a subject that is probably not worth the devotion.

“We chose to represent this with an anonymous robed figure that lives within all of us, waiting for us to don the cloak and take up our role, and we worked with John MacKay to bring the Disciple to life in the music video. Taking cinematic inspiration from Maya Deren’s Meshes of the Afternoon (1943) as well as Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal (1958), the Disciple is depicted as one of us, and we in turn are depicted as the Disciple.”

Nation of Language’s most recent album, A Way Forward, came out in 2021 via [PIAS]. The album featured the songs “Wounds of Love” (another one of our Songs of the Week), “This Fractured Mind” (also one of our Songs of the Week), and “A Word & A Wave” (also a Song of the Week), and “The Grey Commute” (another Song of the Week).

Read our interview with Nation of Language on A Way Forward.

The band’s debut album, Introduction, Presence, was released in 2020.

Nation of Language also took part in our 20th anniversary Covers of Covers album, where they covered Broken Social Scene’s “Stars and Sons.”

Nation of Language Tour Dates:

4/28 - Baltimore, MD - Ottobar
5/4 - Brooklyn, NY - Brooklyn Steel^
5/17 - Los Angeles, CA - The Fonda Theatre*
5/18 - Seattle, WA - The Crocodile*
5/19 - Seattle, WA - The Crocodile*
6/2 - Barcelona, ES - Primavera Sound Barcelona
6/6 - Madrid, ES - Primavera In The City
6/9 - Madrid, ES - Primavera Sound Madrid
6/11 - Hilvarenbeek, NL - Best Kept Secret
6/14 - London, UK - KOKO
8/11-8/13 - San Francisco, CA - Outside Lands
8/12 - Portland, OR - Revolution Hall
8/13 - Seattle, WA - Day In Day Out
8/14 - Vancouver, BC - Rickshaw Theatre
10/13 - Pittsburgh, PA - Mr. Small’s Theatre#
10/14 - Cleveland, OH - Grog Shop#
10/16 - Madison, WI - High Noon Saloon#
10/18 - Milwaukee, WI - Back Room @ Colectivo#
10/19 - St. Paul, MN - Amsterdam Bar & Hall#
10/20 - Kansas City, MO - RecordBar#
10/22 - Denver, CO - Gothic#
10/23 - Salt Lake City, UT - Urban Lounge#
10/29 - San Diego, CA - Belly Up Tavern#
10/30 - Phoenix, AZ - Crescent Ballroom#
11/2 - Austin, TX - Scoot Inn#
11/3 - Fort Worth, TX - Tulips FTX#
11/4 - Houston, TX - White Oak Music Hall - Upstairs#
11/7 - Nashville, TN - Basement East#
11/8 - Asheville, NC – Grey Eagle#
11/9 - Carrboro, NC - Cat’s Cradle#
11/10 - Philadelphia, PA - Union Transfer#
11/30 - Boston, MA - The Sinclair#
12/1 - Montreal, QC - Studio TD#
12/2 - Toronto, ON - Phoenix#

^w/ Gustaf
*w/ Reggie Watts
# w/ Miss Grit

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