Shock Records is happy to announce the Australian release date for Balance and Composure’s long awaited sophomore LP The Things We Think We’re Missing – available September 13.
Two years after their critically heralded debut album Separation, Pennsylvanian band Balance and Composure return with their most ambitious and intensely cathartic release to date. The Things We Think We’re Missing, which takes its name after a lyric in their song ‘Tiny Raindrop’, is a poignant album that addresses the band’s eye opening outlook on what’s most important in life.
“This record unintentionally has a very desperate vibe in the lyrical content,” says singer/guitarist Jon Simmons. “It's me wanting something to hold on to, perhaps someone, or answers to my questions about life. I've also noticed we spend all this time in life wanting more and more. Whether it be materials or success, we think we need these things constantly. At the end of the record I had some kind of epiphany where I realized that this was no way to live my life. I should be happy with what I have. I'm alive and I'm breathing and I should embrace that. There are things we think we need in our lives and maybe one day they will come, but right now we are on earth experiencing life and we should be caught up in the moment and just live.”
Themes of desperation and introspection are felt throughout the new record, especially with the forthcoming new single ‘Reflection’, which explores the internal conflict of how one might perceive the things around them.
“We wrote 90% of this record in a cabin in the woods in the Pocono Area of PA,” Simmons adds. “We wrote ‘Reflection’ on one of those days. This song is about seeing the world how you want to see it and not letting anyone else's views sway you. I always struggle with just accepting happiness. It's about letting a moment of being content stay with you. The song is me, sort of arguing with that feeling, by knowing I need it and not pushing it away this time.”
Musically speaking, Balance and Composure have raised the bar far higher with The Things We Think We’re Missing. The intensity of their isolating lyrical desperation is only matched the band’s sonic delivery of churning guitar riffs and driving rhythm. While influences of Sunny Day Real Estate, Neutral Milk Hotel and Nirvana shine throughout, Balance and Composure’s diverse musical palette adds a dynamic edge to their post-90’s rock sound that’s vibrant, memorable and entirely their own.
Working with producer Will Yip (Title Fight, Man Overboard, Circa Survive), mixer Brad Wood (Sunny Day Real Estate, Smashing Pumpkins) and mastering engineer Emily Lazar (Foo Fighters, Against Me!) Balance and Composure recorded the new songs individually allowing each their own unique feel.
“We sound like we do when we play live on this album,” says drummer Bailey Van Ellis. “It's heavy, it's raw, it's vibey, and both Will Yip and ourselves made it a point to capture that. To us, a lot of the tracks on Separation felt like random pieces put together to make songs. We're older and wiser now and we'd like to think that we're maturing into better songwriters.”
01. Parachutes
02. Lost Your Name
03. Back Of Your Head
04. Tiny Raindrop
05. Notice Me
06. Ella
07. Cut Me Open
08. Reflection
09. I’m Swimming
10. When I Come Undone
11. Dirty Head
12. Keepsake
13. Enemy
Check out the track "Reflection" below..