Laura Jane Grace has released a surprise new solo album, Stay Alive, recorded in July at Electrical Audio studio in Chicago by Steve Albini (Nirvana/Pixies/Page & Plant).
The 14 tracks which make up Stay Alive were originally earmarked for release as the follow-up to Against Me!’s 2016 album Shape Shift With Me, but when the coronavirus pandemic forced America into lockdown, Grace came to the decision that she should record the songs herself.
“I sat around for a month-and-a-half at a home just being shell-shocked being like, ‘What the fuck happened and what the fuck is happening with the world?’” she explains. “As I started to get my bearings, I just came to the realisation that waiting was going to kill the record and kill the songs. I spent two years working on all these songs, and the idea of throwing them away didn’t sit well with me. But then I was like, ‘What am I waiting for?’ All I have to do is adjust my scope. I can sit here on my fucking ass and do nothing, or I can work.”
Among the 14 songs tracked with Albini in just two days, Hanging Tree and the Sound Of Music-referencing So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Fuck Off call for an end to Donald Trump’s Presidency, while The Mountain Song sees Grace reflect two years of sobriety.
“I just want to put this out because it makes me feel alive and it’s giving me something better than sitting here losing my mind while the world falls apart,” she says. “It doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks about what you do. Just stay alive.”
Stay Alive is available on all streaming platforms now, and will be available as a physical release on December 11, via Big Scary Monsters.
Laura Jane Grace Stay Alive tracklist:
1. The Swimming Pool Song
2. The Calendar Song
3. Shelter In Place
4. Return To Oz
5. The Mountain Song
6. SuperNatural Possession
7. Hanging Tree
8. Please Leave
9. Why Kant I Be You?
10. Ice Cream Song
11. The Magic Point
12. Blood & Thunder
13. So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Fuck Off
14. Old Friend (Stay Alive)
