American Aquarium Finds “New Ways To Lose” on Upcoming Album

After 20 years, and 20 albums, American Aquarium and frontman BJ Barham still won’t get a clue that large swaths to the United States is entirely uninterested in the medicine they’re trying to shove down their throats. But that’s never stopped them from trying, and there’s no stopping now. After all, it might be a diaspora, or thin in population compared to the pop country acts filling people’s faces full of sugar. But American Aquarium fans are ride or die, and won’t pass up any opportunity to hear new music, or see them in-person.

Just announced, the band’s new album New Ways to Lose will be released on June 26th—a relatively quick turnaround time from announcement to street date. But BJ Barham’s got some things to say, and sooner than later is the time. Once again produced by Shooter Jennings, and recorded mostly live over 10 days in Los Angeles, the sessions were said to be loose, live, and organic as opposed to striving for perfection. Shooter wanted to capture those spit pellets from BJ’s palate as he pours his soul out in songs.

“All of my records are yearbooks,” BJ says. “Twenty years from now, I’ll pull them off the shelf and remember exactly who I was when I wrote them … No matter what success you find, you’re always looking up the ladder at what you don’t have.” That speaks to the hunger that has persisted in this band, even as they’ve found grassroots success that is the envy of many others.

American Aquarium isn’t as much country music as it is rock & roll with steel guitar, Southern roots, and a strong singer/songwriter disposition. New songs on the album address things very personal to BJ like his wife and the loss of a family pet, to the socioeconomic problems and general empire decline taking root in the United States.

“Woke up today and they’re tearing down another thing I love about this town,” BJ sings in the album’s debut single, “History Repeats Itself.” “Little men in ill-fitting suits, making the decisions for me and you. Tall and skinny, cheap and fast. Who gives a damn how long they’ll last? Get the money, get out of town. Be long gone before it all falls down.”

The title of the new album was inspired by the NC State Wolfpack announcer Gary Hahn who often gives the team credit for finding a new ways to lose games. That sort of dogged, loser mentality is something Barham identifies with.

“It’s about trying so hard to win at something, but always finding a way to lose at it,” Barham says. “We take our hits and we get back up, and we do what we do. There are three things you can count on: death, taxes, and American Aquarium showing up to your town once a year to play a rock & roll show … Our live show is 90 minutes of us kicking your throat in. We wanted to make a record that felt representative of that.”

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TRACK LIST:

1. Dollar General
2. Can’t Into Could
3. 4×60
4. Twin Flames
5. Out There In the Dark
6. History Repeats Itself
7. Favorite Hello
8. Whatever Helps You Sleep At Night
9. Just Like You
10. Bad Habits