This past spring, Nation of Language has shared a striking cover of Bruce Springsteen’s Tunnel of Love album track, “Tougher Than the Rest” ,which was released on a limited-edition 7” single (of 1000 copies) at the end of May 2026. For its B-side, the band recorded “The Conversation,”which is an unreleased track from the Dance Called Memory sessions that was produced by Nick Millhiser and mastered by Heba Kadry and is available now on all streaming services.

Nation of Language’s Ian Richard Devaney offers his thoughts on the song: “The Conversation” is a song that’s been haunting me for a few years now – one of my personal favorites I’ve written, yet it’s never found a home on an album. It’s extremely contained in the sense that when I write out the lyrics it reads more like a standalone poem than most of our songs, and it dabbles in storytelling in a much different way than I’m used to doing. It’s a vignette, centered around two people whose lives are so intertwined, and have been moving towards this one conversation, this inflection point, where the things that need to be said might finally be said.”

Photo Credit: Sam Pittman