Well, we can’t believe we’re saying it, but it’s finally happening – Closure in Moscow is set to release one of the most highly anticipated albums of 2023 with Soft Hell, officially announced earlier this week.
The news broke last Friday on band’s social media channels, complete with accompanying artwork, a full track list, and a bevy of per-order options available in their merch store, which we’ll link to in the outro.
But let’s be real, you don’t need to hear this from us, you need to hear it from the boys themselves, and guess what? Now you can – check out Closure in Moscow’s rollicking first single in 9 years, “Better Way” below.
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Damn, and it’s got Manny vocals? Closure in Moscow certainly chose the right single to usher in the band’s lush, post-technocratic new era with “Better Way.” The single’s strikingly vulnerable demeanor methodically carves its way into the heart of the listener, once again challenging fans clamoring to see whether or not the sound of CiM’s post-hardcore glory days make an appearance or not.
Trick shots are par for the course with CiM though, so it shouldn’t have surprised us that “Better Way” also challenged the future-vintage evolution of Pink Lemonade. But at the end of the day, the fact is we’ve piled sky-high expectations onto Closure in Moscow for a very long time. That is probably exhausting.
Somehow, their affinity for bizarre, inter-dimensional wisdom (this is the band that got me to read both Book of Five Rings and Simulacra and Simulation) lives on in “Better Way,” even as it goes right for the gut. Without epic tomes, lofty metaphors, or fantasies to analyze, we’re left with a compelling, but raw tale of introspection and the trappings of regret. It almost feels naked compared to the high-concept lyrical filigree of Pink Lemonade, but for many it will come as a welcome call back to the band’s more poetic past, as well as a smart step forward.
Beyond the lack of pretense and swooning delivery, “Better Way” also sounds like the missing link between the band’s first EP / albumette, The Penance and the Patience and everything that came after it. It also does a fair amount to dispel incessant comparisons to The Mars Volta and Fall of Troy. Those are fine bands to be compared to, but it’s hard to overstate Closure in Moscow’s originality.
For a little more clarity, but not too much, here’s an excerpt from the press release:
“It’s finally here for you to preorder, the last 9 years distilled down to 50 minutes. We’ve put blood, sweat and years into this, and fully believe when you hear these tracks, the wait will have been worth it. We know you have to take our word on that for the time being, but the wait is almost over. The new album is called Soft Hell. Getting comfortable with chronic discomfort caused by the choices that fears and trauma lead you to make. This is life in a soft hell. There are enough distractions to stave off facing up to it, you can keep yourself in denial to avoid it, and things can just keep ticking along. Life becomes a fever dream of creature comforts and time killers, floating further into a lake of fire. People come along to pull you out, but they too get burned when you feel too stuck to climb with them. ‘Better Way’ will be the first single from the album. You can listen to it across all platforms on March 10th. Thank you to everyone that had been patiently waiting for new music. Everyone involved with working on this went so above and beyond because they believed in it, and we hope you hear what they heard too.”
As you can probably tell, we’re just really excited to be hearing new music from Closure in Moscow. Big thank you to Bird’s Robe PR for sending us the email! This means a lot because as the band is notoriously press shy, and to have a chance to be one of the first to bring it to your long-awaiting ears is an honor.
It’s going to be a crazy year, indeed.
Check out the pre-orders for Soft Hell here – there are a couple truly sick variants for you vinyl heads out there, we just haven’t decided what color we want yet. If you want you can buy us a coffee here, but today, you should only do that if you follow it up with some Pink Lemonade, and turn our questions into a pretty castle, hovering in the sky.