Nation of Language share new single ‘Too Much, Enough’ starring Jimmi Simpson, Reggie Watts, Kevin Morby, Tomberlin, plus more friends. EU/UK Tour this Autumn, including London’s HEAVEN.
Today, Nation of Language share new single ‘Too Much, Enough’ - the centrepiece of new album Strange Disciple out 15th September via [PIAS] and named as one of the most anticipated albums of the summer by Pitchfork.
In this new track, the band takes aim at the angering, addictive and anxiety-inducing TV news cycles that have so many viewers hopelessly devoted. ‘Too Much, Enough’ looks outward with an effect that is both immediate and irresistible. The chorus explodes like the revelation of a third eye opening, combining a ricocheting pattern of synths with an uninhibited bassline, leaping vocal melodies and an empathic call-and-response.
Simultaneously surreal and hyper present, ‘Too Much, Enough’ arrives with a music video starring Emmy-nominated actor Jimmi Simpson (Westworld, It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia), fellow musicians Reggie Watts, Kevin Morby, Tomberlin, Moldy Peaches’ Adam Green, and LVL UP’s Greg Rutkin, plus more than a dozen other close friends, familiar faces and even the hooded Strange Disciple itself.
Directed by Robert Kolodny, the video satirises the outrageous TV broadcasts that inspired the song, turning the hysteria and fear-mongering into a hilarious embrace of absurdity.
'Too Much, Enough’ is a song born out of an exhaustion with the 24 hour news cycle and the outrage bait it uses to get everyone permanently wound up. It seems the only way to find an edge in the media business is to appeal to our most base instincts of disgust (see: the high ratings of Fox News, etc.), and we end up suffering both individually and collectively for it.
When it came to creating a visual to go alongside the song, we didn’t want the music video to be its own form of outrage bait so we went with a more absurdist approach, gathering some friends of ours, and of our incredible director Robert Kolodny, to make something fun and outlandish to that effect. We also laced the video with as many NOL-related Easter eggs and iconography as possible to give anyone watching an opportunity to play along at home and be a part of that absurdity. It felt good to try to name a problem for ourselves without leaning on fear and rage.
It’s a powerful thing to deny someone the ability to manipulate your most destructive emotions, and that’s something we want to celebrate here.
The overarching theme of Strange Disciple is infatuation and how one's reality can be warped by it. We went a more romantic route with that on the previous video, but News is one of those less interpersonal activities it feels like everyone takes part in, so we wanted to show our disciple is just as susceptible to it as any other figure."
The band says.
Following previous singles ‘Sole Obsession’, ‘Weak In Your Light’ (hailed among the “best songs of 2023 so far” - LA Times), and the frenetic ‘Stumbling Still’, ‘Too Much, Enough’ further embodies Strange Disciple’s overarching focus on unhealthy infatuations, obsessions and the bigger idea that feeling something is better than nothing, even if the source is damaging.
Produced by Nick Millhiser (Holy Ghost!, LCD Soundsystem), Strange Disciple is also the third album in a triptych that has unfolded over the past three years. As the band has evolved, the common denominator has been a restless urge to embrace progress, exploration and forward motion, and singer Ian Devaney imagines the sound of Nation of Language’s three LPs as different ways of moving through and experiencing through the world.
Whereas 2020’s pandemic-era debut, Introduction, Presence, took place in a car, with a blurry euphoria reminiscent of road trips, and 2021's A Way Forward occurred on and as a locomotive, inspired by the minimal chug of krautrock, Strange Disciple is the band’s wayfarer record. Informed by wondrous walks through New York and different cities they thought they'd never visit on tour, it sees the band expand their sound with newfound and visceral fervour.
After a triumphant series of shows at Brooklyn Steel, The Fonda Theatre and a sold-out audience of 1400 at London’s KOKO, plus standout appearances at Pitchfork Festival and Primavera - where they drew the largest crowd of any artist that played their stage in Barcelona - Nation of Language’s Strange Disciple tour is still just beginning. On top of nearly 50 dates coming up this year, including an upgraded venue in Berlin and their biggest London audience at HEAVEN, the band has announced three more US shows for October, including Chicago’s Metro, San Francisco’s The Independent and LA’s The Roxy.
Full list below, and tickets at nationoflanguage.com/events.
Photo credit: Shervin Lainez
Strange Disciple out 15th September via [PIAS]
Pre-order HERE
Nation of Language Tour Dates 2023
3/8 - Haldern, DE - Haldern Pop
4/8 - Diepholz, DE - Appletree Garden
5/8 - Katowice, PL - OFF Festival
11/8 - San Francisco, CA - Outside Lands
12/8 - Portland, OR - Revolution Hall^
13/8 - Seattle, WA - Day In Day Out
14/8 - Vancouver, BC - Rickshaw Theatre^
7/9 - Baltimore, MD - WTMD's First Thursday Festival
15/9 - Berlin, DE - Astra (UPGRADED)
16/9 - Hamburg, DE - Uebel & Gefährlich
17/9 - Malmo, SE - Plan B
18/9 - Copenhagen, DK - Pumpehuset
20/9 - Kӧln, DE - Gebäude9
21/9 - Amsterdam, NL - Paradiso
22/9 - Brussels, BE - Orangerie
23/9 - Paris, FR - Trabendo
25/9 - Tourcoing, FR - Le Grand Mix
27/9 - London, UK - HEAVEN
28/9 - Brighton, UK - Concorde 2
29/9 - Bristol, UK - Marble Factory
30/9 - Nottingham, UK - Rescue Rooms
4/10 - Manchester, UK - New Century
5/10 - Leeds, UK - Stylus
6/10 - Sheffield, UK - Foundry
7/10 - Newcastle, UK - Boiler Shop
13/10 - Pittsburgh, PA - Mr. Small's Theatre#
14/10 - Cleveland, OH - Grog Shop#
15/10 - Chicago, IL - Metro#
16/10 - Madison, WI - High Noon Saloon#
18/10 - Milwaukee, WI - Back Room @ Colectivo#
19/10 - St. Paul, MN - Amsterdam Bar & Hall#
20/10 - Kansas City, MO - RecordBar#
22/10 - Denver, CO - Gothic#
23/10 - Salt Lake City, UT - Urban Lounge#
25/10 - San Francisco, CA - The Independent#
26/10 - San Francisco, CA - The Independent#
29/10 - Los Angeles, CA - The Roxy#
29/10 - San Diego, CA - Belly Up Tavern#
30/10 - Phoenix, AZ - Crescent Ballroom#
2/11 - Austin, TX - Scoot Inn#
3/11 - Fort Worth, TX - Tulips FTX#
4/11 - Houston, TX - White Oak Music Hall - Upstairs#
7/11 - Nashville, TN - Basement East#
8/11 - Asheville, NC - Grey Eagle#
9/11 - Carrboro, NC - Cat's Cradle#
10/11 - Philadelphia, PA - Union Transfer#
11/11 - Washington, DC - The Atlantis#
30/11 - Boston, MA - The Sinclair#
1/12 - Montreal, QC - Studio TD#
2/12 - Toronto, ON - Phoenix#
^w/ Curling
# w/ Miss Grit
Tickets available HERE