Thou is back with their first non-collaborative album since 2018 and a crushing single to kick things off. Thou is now streaming "I Feel Nothing When You Cry" from their new record Umbilical, due out May 31 via Sacred Bones Records. Of course none of this is to say Thou hasn't been busy – since 2018, they've released collaborative records with The Body, Emma Ruth Rundle, and Mizmor alongside a boatload of compilations.
"They've called us anarchists, criminals, foreign meddlers, lunatics, dispossessed, relativists, utilitarians, egoists, passion maximizers, ascetics, negators of everything," said Thou. "Clearly, the Thou experiment is never going to appeal to audiences who demand that art rigorously enforce a coherent and righteous worldview.
"And yet, are we not ourselves constrained by our own rigid morality? In those quiet moments of deep contemplation, when the bargains and concessions are thoroughly examined, when we yield before the Judging Eye–what is the summation of our choices? If the unspoiled self beyond the immensity of time were given voice, what pronouncements would be made? What would such an internal audit yield? What undeniable character would be revealed?
"This record is for the radicals, the crackpots, the exiles who have escaped the wasteland of capitulation. This record is for the militants and zealots refusing to surrender to comforts, to practicalities, to thirty pieces of silver. And this record is most especially for the weaklings and malingerers, burdened by capricious indulgence, hunched by the deep wounds of compromise, shuffling in limp approximation, desperately reaching back towards integrity and conviction."
Umbilical is available for pre-order here. You can also catch Thou at one of the dates below.
4/13 New Orleans, LA – Palestine Benefit at Fred Hampton Free Store
5/4 Providence, RI – AS220
7/28 New Orleans, LA – The Broadside (w/ The Body + Dis Fig & Nail Club)
8/14 The Zoo – Brisbane, AU (w/ Full Of Hell)
8/15 Mary’s Underground – Sydney, AU (w/ Full Of Hell)
8/16 The Baso – Canberra, AU (w/ Full Of Hell)
8/17 Stay Gold – Melbourne, AU (w/ Full Of Hell)
8/18 Crown & Anchor – Adelaide, AU (w/ Full Of Hell)
8/23 Rolling Stone – Christchurch, NZ (w/ Full Of Hell)
8/24 Meow – Wellington, NZ (w/ Full Of Hell)
8/25 Galatos – Auckland, NZ (w/ Full Of Hell)
9/13-15 Richmond, VA – Persistent Vision Fest
