Today, Bartees Strange shares ‘Wants, Needs’, an uproarious confessional highlight from his upcoming album Horror, out on 14 February. ‘Wants, Needs’ finds Strange’s stylistic range and aptitude for genre-melting pop music at its sharpest. What begins as a pitch perfect indie rock earworm gradually crescendos into a full force anthem, anchored by disarming self-assuredness.
“I realised a couple years ago that if music is really going to work out long-term, I want/need more fans. Of course – it’s a timing and numbers game – but race is a powerful component too. I don’t see a lot of people like me in the indie space making long term livings on their records. I worry people may have a hard time connecting to me because I don’t look/sound like them. That I’m fun to root for, but not actually supported. This song is about how much that worries me – fully understanding that a lot of these neurosis are of my own making.”
Strange was raised on fear. His family told him scary stories to teach life lessons, and at an early age, he started watching scary movies to practice being strong. The world can be a terrifying place, and for a young, queer, Black person in rural America, that terror can be visceral. Horror is an album about facing those fears and growing to become someone to be feared.
+ Pre-order on exclusive transparent indie vinyl, black vinyl, and CD from the 4AD Store here +
+ UK and Ireland fans can pre-order limited red Dinked edition, including signed print and bonus 7″, whilst stocks last here +
+ Pre-save and pre-order from all platforms here +
Horror began at Strange’s home studio with an eye toward production. A session with Yves and Lawrence Rothman (Yves Tumor, Lady Gaga) provided a rhythmic and sonic backbone for chunks of the record. After Strange met Jack Antonoff and the pair became fast friends, Antonoff began work on Horror. The twosome finished the record together, working the songs raw, editing, arranging, and dressing them up in clothing bound to inspire fear. Throughout the record, Strange lays down one difficult truth after another, all over a sonic pastiche of music that soundtracked his childhood. Across the album’s 12 new tracks are genre-bending threads of the music his dad introduced him to – Parliament Funkadelic, Fleetwood Mac and Teddy Pendergrass – merged with Strange’s interest in hip-hop, country, indie rock, and house.
Born in Ipswich, England to a military father and opera-singer mother, Bartees Strange had a peripatetic childhood before eventually settling in Mustang, Oklahoma. Later, Bartees cut his teeth playing in hardcore bands in Washington D.C. and Brooklyn whilst working in the Barack Obama administration and the environmental justice movement.
Horror will be available digitally, on CD, standard black vinyl, transparent vinyl (indie retail and artist store only) and red vinyl (Dinked exclusive edition) which will include a bonus 7” of new songs ‘Like This’ and ‘Pigs Fly’. To pre-order head here.
Bartees Strange will celebrate the release of Horror with a handful of February headline shows. Tickets are on sale now.
February 2025
13th – Paramount, Los Angeles CA, US
15th – 9:30 Club, Washington DC, US
19th – Bowery Ballroom, New York NY, US
26th – Oslo, London UK
Bartees Strange – Horror
4AD0746
1. Too Much
2. Hit It Quit It
3. Sober
4. Baltimore
5. Lie 95
6. Wants, Needs
7. Lovers
8. Doomsday Buttercup
9. 17
10. Loop Defenders
11. Norf Gun
12. Backseat Banton
BARTEES STRANGE ONLINE
barteesstrange.com
barteesstrange.bandcamp.com
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