Problems

Description

On their new album Problemstheir first full-length in eight yearsThe Get Up Kids examine everything from life-changing loss to loneliness to the inevitable anxiety of existing in 2019. But by sustaining the essence of their soundanthemic choruses with sing-alongready melodiesthe band highlights those troubles as a shared experience, giving way to an unbreakable solidarity. And at the heart of Problems is an invaluable element the bands embodied since their 1997 debut Four Minute Mile: a penetrating lyricism thats both acutely introspective and indelibly resonant. The follow-up to 2018s Kicker EP, Problems came to life in Bridgeport, Connecticut, with the band holing up together for a three-week span. Working with Grammy Award-winning producer Peter Katis (Kurt Vile, Japandroids, The National), The Get Up Kids took a characteristically riff-driven yet decidedly pop-minded approach to song structure, while also allowing themselves a new sense of creative freedom. At one point with this band, if we came up with something that felt too much like when we first started out, we wouldve said, No, we cant do that anymore, says Pryor. These days weve learned how to write without roadblocking the ideas that come naturally to us.