The Menzingers Announce New Reimagined Album, From Exile
Listen to new versions of Strawberry Mansion and High School Friend, taken from The Menzingers' upcoming reimagined album, From Exile.
Using their time in lockdown wisely, The Menzingers have re-recorded their brilliant 2019 album Hello Exile and reimagined the 12 tracks for a new stripped-down record, From Exile.
To coincide with the announcement of the LP – which is due out on September 25 digitally, and available on vinyl from November 19 – the Philly punks have also unveiled new renditions of Strawberry Manson and High School Friend from the album, which you can check out below.
“The live music industry vanished before our eyes, and just like that we were out of work like tens of millions of others,” explains singer/guitarist Greg Barnett of how From Exile came about.
Read this: The Menzingers’ Greg Barnett: “It affects me on a daily basis, reading the news and being so upset”
“As the weeks progressed the upcoming tours got rescheduled, then rescheduled again, then effectively cancelled. There were times when it all felt fatal. There’s no guide book on how to navigate being a working musician during a global pandemic, so we were left to make it up as we went along. We wanted to document and create in the moment, and though we couldn’t be in the same room together due to social distancing lockdowns, we got creative.”
Greg continues: “We would track the songs from our own home studios, share the files via Dropbox, and pray it all made sense when pieced back together. Initially, we planned for the album to be similar to our acoustic demo collection On The Possible Past, but we quickly found out that this batch of songs benefited from more detailed arrangements
“We rewrote, and changed keys and melodies. We blended analog and digital instruments in ways we never had before. We dug through old lyric notebooks and added additional verses. We got our dear friend Kayleigh Goldsworthy to play violin on two songs. No idea was off limits. Hell, I even convinced the band to let me play harmonica on a song – no small feat! The recording process ran from mid-March till June, and upon completion we sent it over to our dear friend and close collaborator Will Yip to mix and master.”
Stream Strawberry Mansion below:
And here's High School Friend:
Awesome stuff.
Check out the full tracklist:
1. America (You're Freaking Me Out) (From Exile)
2. Anna (From Exile)
3. High School Friend (From Exile)
4. Last To Know (From Exile)
5. Strangers Forever (From Exile)
6. Hello Exile (From Exile)
7. Portland (From Exile)
8. Strain Your Memory (From Exile)
9. I Can't Stop Drinking (From Exile)
10. Strawberry Mansion (From Exile)
11. London Drugs (From Exile)
12. Farewell Youth (From Exile)
And the artwork looks like this: