Barenaked Ladies Announce New Album Detour de Force for July 2021 Release

Multi-platinum alt rock band Barenaked Ladies has announced the release of their new album Detour de Force along with a brand new single “New Disaster.”  The album is set to be released on July 16, 2021 and will feature 14 tracks of BNL’s lyrical playfulness and  topical yet philosophical reflection. 

Sonically, “New Disaster” is led by a solid guitar riff, slightly-delayed vocals from lead vocalist Ed Robertson and a catchy, up-tempo hook that sounds like it’s ready for a big stage. The lyrics focus on the chaos and mania created by the 24-hour American news cycle, and all the politics that are entangled within it. The chorus, “Here comes the new disaster/Here comes the end of days” is meant to be satirical, as Barenaked Ladies are criticizing how the news cycle pushes out extremely negative information that is meant to catch people’s attention. Robertson believes that the effects of the 24 hour news cycle are “so sensational, unvetted, and un-researched,” so it served as the inspiration for this track. 

The music video is in a Marvel-like graphic novel style, in which a family is hypnotized while watching the chaos being shown on the news. The message of the video is extremely overt, as the news anchorman plays the super villain. He actually hypnotizes the audience with a swinging object and a black-and-white spiral image in order to keep them glued to their seats. There is also a nod in the video at aggressive advertising by companies using the news cycle as a way to profit off of the hysteria. However, eventually the spell cast on the family by the news is lifted by the heroic music of Barenaked Ladies. The music video was created by Marvel illustrator Enis Cisic, giving it the hero vs. villain feel. 

Barenaked Ladies were scheduled to perform their Last Summer On Earth tour this June, however they had to reschedule their tour to Summer 2022. 

Detour De Force Tracklist:

1. Flip
2. Good Life
3. New Disaster
4. Big Back Yard
5. Live Well
6. Flat Earth
7. Here Together
8. Roll Out
9. Bylaw
10. God Forbid
11. Paul Chambers
12. The National Park
13. Man Made Lake
14. Internal Dynamo
15. Way of the Heart (Vinyl-only exclusive bonus track)