In May, Lower Dens announced The Competition, the long-awaited follow-up to their 2015 album Escape From Evil. That announcement came with a new song called “Young Republicans,” and now the group has shared another preview of the album, “I Drive.”
The upbeat synthpop track also got a black-and-white video, and the group’s Jana Hunter said the song is about the real meaning of family: “Like a lot of queer and trans people, I’ve learned that real family is made, and it isn’t necessarily blood. Even my blood relatives, we work for that familial connection and trust. This song is about leaving behind obligations to people who don’t love or care about you, being with and about people who do. It’s a feeling so strong it’s driving me. That’s the driving I’m doing.”
Hunter also said of the album, “The issues that have shaped my life, for better or for worse, have to do with coming from a family and a culture that totally bought into this competitive mindset. I was wild and in a lot of pain as a kid; home life was very bleak, and pop songs were a guaranteed escape to a mental space where beauty, wonder, and love were possible. I wanted to write songs that might have the potential to do that.”
There's a lot to The Competition but in a broad way it's about losing one's mind living under capitalism, made to compete. I wanted to do something with trophies, maybe the most obvious broad symbol of competition.
— Lower Dens (@lowerdens) July 3, 2019
Watch the video for “I Drive” above.
The Competition is out 9/6 via Ribbon Music. Pre-order it here.
