Alternative three piece The XCERTS have released their new track, “Blame“, taken from their upcoming album, LEARNING HOW TO LIVE AND LET GO, out August 18th via UNFD. The track arrives alongside a self-directed, one-shot, one-take live video, which can be seen now below. A fizzing slap of anxiety and confessional self-loathing set to a soundtrack of driving guitars and urgent melody, “Blame” was born out of the band’s self-described “3 piece chemistry” in their rehearsal room, and stands out as the only non-studio penned song on the album.
Speaking on the track, frontman Murray explains, “’Blame’ is the most quintessential XCERTS song on the new record. It was important for us to look back but push the boundaries of what, in essence, is quite a simple pop song. The majority of the new record was written in the studio, but we crafted this one in the rehearsal room and I feel like you can hear the ‘3 piece’ chemistry and urgency within the recording. It’s a song about accountability and no longer looking for a scapegoat when things go wrong, and realising I’ve really hurt people in the past with my thoughtlessness. I was once told ‘if you can’t spot the dickhead in the room, it’s probably you’. I guess it’s our first (hyper) self-aware song lyrically.”
Reflecting on the album itself, Murray shares, “We knew we wanted to approach this album differently in regards to the recording process. Each album we’ve made in the past has been extremely traditional but this time round we wanted to engulf ourselves in the studio environment and work without limitations. It was definitely time for us to shake things up and feel a certain level of discomfort in order to achieve our vision. We didn’t want to rest on our laurels. We spent a year working closely with our friend Steven Graham Ansell in his studio, which became our sanctuary. Each day was so inspiring as we had no idea where these ideas would take us. Working without fear for the first time proved to be so rewarding.”