{"product_id":"slaughter-beach-dog-safe-and-also-no-fear-vinyl-ltd-ed-gatefold","title":"SLAUGHTER BEACH, DOG - SAFE AND ALSO NO FEAR VINYL (LTD. ED. GATEFOLD)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eRelease Date: 2nd August 2019\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eThe third and best yet solo album from \u003cspan\u003eJake Ewald of pop-punk prince's Modern Baseball. Reminiscent of The Weakerthans and John K. Samson's solo records, \u003ci\u003eSafe And Also No Fear\u003c\/i\u003e is like a faithful, familiar, friend that's there for you whenever you need it with its frolicking folk-rock at its heart, but with the twists of indie-rock, pop and of course punk.\u003c\/span\u003e\n\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFFO: Modern Baseball, The Weakerthans, John K. Samson, Hovvdy\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\"Across the previous Slaughter Beach, Dog albums, Jake Ewald (of Modern Baseball) has crafted a specific sound. It’s one that incorporates pop music, indie-rock, folk, and just the faintest dash of punk in order to create something that’s accessible but still artistically rich. With \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eSafe And Also No Fear\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, the band’s third album, Ewald has abandoned his usual practices in service of creating something that, try as one might, isn’t so easy to describe. In the wake of 2017’s Birdie, an album awash in warm tones and bubbly pop hooks, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eSafe And Also No Fear\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e can’t help but feel like a turn toward darkness. It’s not one that’s instigated by the outside world—as inescapable as it may be—but instead the dramatic shifts of a person’s interior life. Where Ewald once offered tightly woven vignettes about characters that mirrored the people in his life, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eSafe And Also No Fear\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e finds him naked at the album’s center, questioning everything he knows about himself. Around him, bassist Ian Farmer, guitarist Nick Harris, and drummer Zack Robbins spin out songs that are dense, swirling amalgams of difficult questions and hard-earned realizations—the kind that can’t be expressed through the accepted structures of pop music. This isn’t to say there aren’t hooks, as songs like “Good Ones” and “One Day” have effervescent melodies anchoring them, but \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eSafe And Also No Fear\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e generally avoids taking the clear-cut path. As Ewald tells it, that’s a horrifying thing to put out into the world. After putting the finishing touches on the album, he sat down and listened back to the demos he’d first made, then the album itself, and realized it sounded unlike anything he’d ever done before. His creative impulses had changed over the years, and the result was a record that maybe his followers wouldn’t actually like. Ewald seemingly addresses this anxiety during the album’s most ambitious track, the seven-minute long “Black Oak.” It’s fitting that midway through the longest song Ewald has ever written he offhandedly remarks, “Realizing this may put my career on the line.” It’s part of a larger narrative, but one that’s more textural and ambiguous than what the band has been known for. Is that lyric about Ewald and Slaughter Beach, Dog? We’ll maybe never know—and that’s the beauty of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eSafe And Also No Fear\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e. It’s an album so profoundly singular, one that sees the band willing to wade out into deep waters without a life vest, that it encourages you to go out there with it. You hear the band fully embrace the unknown at the end of “Black Oak,” when the song explodes open and Ewald’s vocals are looped into a refrain that’s haunting and impossible to sing along with accurately. You can pick out phrases and hum a melody, but there’s no didactic meaning behind it. It’s there for you to find if you need it.\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"VENUS VINYL","offers":[{"title":"LTD. ED. GATEFOLD","offer_id":31461741199422,"sku":"VEV-08822","price":20.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0003\/6395\/4238\/products\/Slaughter_Beach_Dog_-_Safe_And_Also_No_Fear.jpg?v=1577662897","url":"https:\/\/venusvinyl.com\/products\/slaughter-beach-dog-safe-and-also-no-fear-vinyl-ltd-ed-gatefold","provider":"VENUS VINYL","version":"1.0","type":"link"}