Aaron West and The Roaring Twenties, the folk rock project of The Wonder Years’ Dan Campbell, have announced a new album, In Lieu Of Flowers, due April 12 via Hopeless Records (pre-order). It continues the ongoing story of the band’s titular character, Aaron West, and here’s the announcement with more background:
To understand the story of In Lieu Of Flowers is to know where Aaron’s path has taken him so far. It all begins with the worst year of his life, marked by profound loss––grief, divorce and miscarriage––detailed on his 2014 debut, We Don’t Have Each Other, and 2016’s Bittersweet (EP).
2019’s Routine Maintenance begins a new chapter for Aaron, albeit short-lived. After a bar fight lands him in jail and he has no one to call, Aaron heads to Los Angeles for a fresh start where he occupies his time between crappy jobs and open mic nights. On the road playing gigs, he forms a band and they start to gain some traction before another blow hits his family––the loss of his brother-in-law.
He finds a new purpose in the aftermath; “I’m going to be someone you can count on for a change,” he sings on the album’s closing title track.
The new album picks up where Routine Maintenance left off, starting from the solo tours that Dan went on shortly after its release––on stage, he talked about leaving the band to care for his grieving sister Catherine and nephew Colin, but that solo touring felt like shit. The band soon got back together––as documented on their Live From Asbury Park album recorded over the course of two December 2019 shows.
In the interceding years, Aaron is forced to finally tend to the wounds he’s ignored
for over a decade, and that brings us to In Lieu of Flowers.It’s a triumphant kind of melancholy that colors this entire record as Aaron learns that things don’t go away just because you ignore them. Its message is driven home thanks to the 16-piece band that helped bring it to life with guitar, accordion, keys, banjo, pedal steel, trumpets, trombone, saxophone, cello, and violin.
You can hear those multi-layered arrangements and Dan Campbell’s iconic voice in full force on the just-released title track, a unique fusion of chamber pop, Americana, and emo-pop that could only come from this band. Listen and watch the video (by Brad Wyllner) below.
Aaron West and the Roaring Twenties will also play an album release show in Asbury Park on April 11 at Asbury Lanes with Lake Saint Daniel and Never Better Baby. Tickets are on sale now, and if you can’t make it in person, you can stream it live.
Tracklist
1. Smoking Rooms
2. Roman Candles
3. Paying Bills at the End of the World
4. Monogahela Park
5. Alone at St. Luke’s
6. Whiplash
7. Spitting in the Wind
8. I’m an Albatross
9. Runnin’ Out of Excuses
10. In Lieu of Flowers
11. Dead Leaves
