Heart-and-soul body-blows have been raining down for days. Purple geysers everywhere, with any rallying rainbows hiding offshore. First the Thin White Duke and now the Thin Purple Prince, with a Haggard stop in between. Tough pills to swallow. We hope. Cancer and opiates be damned. Left-behinds left to rationalize, but nothing but nonsense still. As the song below sings: “Blind faith don’t sit right.” Same as it ever was. Same as it ever was.

But we roll on. New music coming, and we’re hoping for a lift. To somewhere else. Like you might find at a Casual Party. Speaking of, check out the first track from Band of Horses’ impending new album Why Are You OK. The new album was produced by Grandaddy’s Jason Lytle with executive production from the ubiquitous Rick Rubin.

In a press release the band explained:

“While [Ben] Bridwell and his bandmates–Tyler Ramsey, Ryan Monroe, Creighton Barrett and Bill Reynolds—convened in South Carolina alongside producer Jason Lytle (Grandaddy), Bridwell struggled to bring the new material into focus. One day, at a particularly crucial part of the recording process Ben’s phone rang. It was Rick Rubin—who’d randomly heard a Band of Horses song on the radio during a drive, and had been moved to pull over and call. Without going into details, Bridwell can’t stress the value of this phone call enough. It was exactly the final push that his songs needed on their journey from conception to being sent out into the world.”

Check out the lyric video for the radiant Casual Party below. Sounds to our ears the new album will be a major return to form by the much-loved Band of Horses. We can’t wait.