Hiss Golden Messenger – Nu-Grape: New Song Of The Day

Hiss Golden Messenger release new song Nu-Grape and a new album is on the way.

Here’s the blurb:

Grammy-nominated band Hiss Golden Messenger has announced the release of their highly anticipated new album Jump for Joy (Merge Records) on August 25^th. The first single “Nu-Grape” bursts with buoyant verses and a gospel-tinged chorus featuring Aoife O’Donovan and Amy Helm on backing vocals.

Musically, lyrically, and conceptually, Jump for Joy is unlike any previous Hiss Golden Messenger album. For starters, it contains the most optimistic and groove-filled songs that bandleader, singer and songwriter M.C. Taylor has made. The narrative is somewhat autobiographical as he created a character to represent himself through the various experiences he has had through his life in music.

As Taylor explains through the character,  “I was able to get inside these places that exist so deep in my sense memory: Me at 16, knowing intuitively that there had to be something out there for me, something mysterious and divine that wasn’t full of fucked-up, confusing pain; me with my hardcore band, age 18, wandering the vast expanses of Texas beneath a big, fat tangerine moon, scrounging change to fill the gas tank, trying to make a soundcheck for a show that never happened. There’s me at 30, having kids, writing songs as though they were gravestone epitaphs, not yet understanding that nothing is so permanent and serious and that I needed to be gentler with my spirit. There’s me at 35, still chasing the thing because I’ve touched it once or twice and I know it’s the only way for me to feel whole and real and useful, but in the rear-view mirror, I can see everyone who gave up in search of something easier and not so heartbreaking.” For more insight, please read the new bio HERE.

As the album title suggests, a joyful ambience permeates the record and offers a sense of freedom in the music. Anyone who has experienced a Hiss Golden Messenger live performance since touring opened up following the pandemic will immediately recognize this. Taylor and bandmates Chris Boemer (guitar), Alex Bingham (bass), Nick Falk (drums) and Sam Fribush (keys) have never sounded better. The group has achieved a delicate balance of becoming simultaneously tighter and looser. All of this has been captured on Jump for Joy, which was produced by Taylor.

Jump for Joy is the follow-up to 2021’s critically acclaimed release Quietly Blowing It, which was an intimate and introspective offering that found Taylor ruminating on themes of growing up, alienation, obligation, hope, purpose, family, class, self-discovery, healing, and rebuilding. The album received 4-star reviews in Rolling Stone and American Songwriter along with positive coverage in The New York Times, Associated Press, Relix and more (See Highlights). Taylor was featured on NPR Weekend Edition and the band appeared on CBS Saturday Morning. Hiss Golden Messenger’s 2019 album Terms of Surrender received a Grammy nomination for Best Americana Album.

Jump for Joy is available for preorder HERE.