Nothing But Thieves dives into concept album territory with Dead Club City.
The fourth studio effort from the “Trip Switch” rockers takes listeners to a “city-sized members club,” the titular Dead Club City.
“For us, it’s just a really fresh perspective and a new kind of technique of writing,” frontman Conor Mason tells ABC Audio of recording a concept album. “It’s been a lot of fun, because it makes us extra crazy, it makes us really think about details that we’ve never had to think about before.”
“Before it’s, like, ‘OK, great songs, hopefully a great album,’ but this was different,” he continues. “We had the songs, and then we were like, ‘How can we tie all of the threads together?'”
The album introduces the listener to various different Dead Club City residents and characters, all of whom have their own perspectives.
“It’s not a concept that says, like, ‘This place is terrible, you should not wanna be in it,’ or it’s not saying, ‘This place is the ultimate place to be, it’s a utopia,'” Mason explains. “The whole point of the reason why it’s a city-sized members club is that there’s gonna be different people’s opinions about being in the club.”
Just as Dead Club City doesn’t offer a tidy message, it doesn’t reveal when or where the DCC exists — there isn’t a Planet of the Apes moment where the narrator finds the Statue of Liberty and realizes it was Earth all along.
“We wanted it to feel a bit like no one can really decide whether it’s in the ’80s or in the ’70s or the ’50s, or [if] it’s, like, super futuristic,” Mason says. “It was supposed to constantly feel off and odd.”
Dead Club City is out now.
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