Bear’s Den have released their new track, “Blue Hours,” which premiered on Jo Whiley’s BBC Radio 2 show yesterday. The track is the title track from the band’s upcoming fourth studio album, Blue Hours, out May 13th Communion Records. Listen to the track and watch an accompanying animated video now below.
Of the song, Bear’s Den says, “Fundamentally ‘Blue Hours’ is a song about communicating with someone that’s hard to reach. It’s this idea of trying to have a conversation with someone through one way glass, where they can’t even see you and there’s a real disconnect with how you’re communicating. On one level, it’s also an internal thing, where you’re trying to get through to yourself.”
Themes on the upcoming album include both self-reflection and mental health after both struggled with the latter in recent years. “It’s the main over-arching theme with this record,” the band’s Andrew Davie explains. “It probably speaks to our struggles and hopefully many other people’s too. Men are not very good at talking. We’re not really taught how to – men have no idea how to talk about this stuff, certainly to each other.”
Despite the album’s challenging themes, it’s an album drenched in hope too. “We wanted this to be a celebration of music,” Kevin Jones continues. “I think that informed some of the bolder decision making on this record. At a time when music was so distant, it felt important to make an album that sounded hopeful, celebratory, ambitious and beautiful in spite of the heavy subject matter in some of the songs.” Jones adds: “It was almost like we needed to shout louder than before because we felt that there were more barriers between the audience and us. We needed something to transcend that.”
The group also confirmed an extensive run of U.K., European and North American tour dates. Full tour routing can be found below.
BEAR’S DEN LIVE:
April 23—Oslo, NO—Parkteatret
April 24—Stockholm, SE—Debaser
April 26—Copenhagen, DK—Studie 2
April 28—Berlin, DE— Astra
April 29—Hamburg, DE—Fabrik
May 1—Amsterdam, NL—Paradiso
May 2—Amsterdam, NL—Paradiso
May 5—Zurich, CH—Kaufleuten
May 7—Cologne, DE—Carlswerk Victoria
May 9—Brussels, BE—Ancienne Belgique
May 17—Bristol, UK—O2 Academy
May 18—London, UK— Eventim Apollo
May 21—Dublin, IE—Olympia
May 22—Manchester, EN—Albert Hall
May 23—Glasgow, UK—O2 Academy
May 25—Newcastle, EN—Newcastle University
May 26—Birmingham, EN—O2 Institute
May 27—Leeds, EN—Leeds University Stylus
September 8—Dallas, TX—The Studio at The Factory
September 9—Austin, TX—Emo’s
September 11—Nashville, TN—The Basement East
September 12—Atlanta, GA—Variety Playhouse
September 14—Ardmore, PA—Ardmore Music Hall
September 15—New York, NY—Webster Hall
September 16—Washington, DC—9:30 Club
September 17—Boston, MA—Royale
September 20—Toronto, ON—Danforth Music Hall
September 21—Chicago, IL—Thalia Hall
September 23—Minneapolis, MN—Varsity Theater
September 24—Iowa City, IA—The Englert Theatre
September 25—Kansas City, MO—Knuckleheads Saloon
September 27—Denver, CO—Bluebird Theater
September 28—Salt Lake City, UT—The CommonWealth Room
September 30—Seattle, WA—Neptune Theatre
October 1—Vancouver, BC—Vogue Theatre
October 3—Portland, OR—Revolution Hall
October 5—Felton, CA—Felton Music Hall
October 6—San Francisco, CA—August Hall
October 8—West Hollywood, CA—Troubadour