Tanlines—the duo of Eric Emm and Jesse Cohen—have announced their first album in eight years. The Big Mess is out May 19 via Merge, marking their debut release for the label. Today, Tanlines have shared lead single “Outer Banks.” Check out the music video for their new song below.
“This song is about being a perfectionist,” Emm said of “Outer Banks” in a press release. “When I was younger, I thought that being called that was a compliment. But I’ve come to realize it’s actually a liability. This is especially true in any kind of partnership. Making concessions, adjustments and letting things go are all components of a successful endeavor.”
The Big Mess came together after Emm and his family moved from Brooklyn to rural Connecticut, while Cohen remained in New York and launched his marketing career and a podcast. Emm continued writing songs, but he wasn’t sure where they would end up. “I spent years figuring out in my mind, ‘What is my musical life going to look like?’” he said. “I just kept writing.”
In January of last year, Cohen joined Emm at his Connecticut studio along with Patrick Ford to record The Big Mess, which was later mixed by Peter Katis at Tarquin Studios. Thematically, the album deals with “introspective masculinity,” according to Emm—specifically the relationships that exists between fathers and sons, between men, and the expectations society places upon them. “I think of these songs as Rothko paintings,” Emm added. “They’re big and they’re bold and they’re seemingly straightforward, but they have a lot of depth and they engage with you and make you feel something.”
The Big Mess album cover is a photo taken by Emm’s wife’s grandfather in Greece in 1952. “Something about this particular photo really spoke to me—the image of a shepherd who has this very self-possessed and somewhat inscrutable expression,” Emm noted. “He’s sort of straddling two different eras. Our debut EP featured a photo taken in a mall of an ad with two white guys smiling. This is a nod to that, but also represents a big shift in our roles. I’ve stepped closer to the front and have shepherded us here, so to speak. Now it’s one white guy smiling. It’s also a poke at aging and being a guy with gray hair and a beard. Not to mention his sartorial energy.”
Tanlines released their previous album, Highlights, in 2015.
The Big Mess:
01 The Big Mess
02 Outer Banks
03 New Reality
04 Burns Effect
05 Clouds
06 Unreal
07 Arm’s Length Away
08 Endless Love
09 Speed
10 Hold On
11 The Age of Innocence
