Gang of Youths are back with “The Angel of 8th Ave”, the Australian rock band’s first new song in four years.
The heartland rock anthem finds Gang of Youths in their element, as they channel Bruce Springsteen and U2 on a track made to be heard in an arena. “I wanna lay me down and be lover of the year,” David Le’aupepe earnestly sings. “In this strange new town/ This strange hemisphere.”
In an interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, Le’aupepe described “The Angel of 8th Ave” as “kind of a lightning strike.” He added, “I think we wanted those things that had kind of inertia and energy and to have that sensibility. But I think there was kind of a part of us that wanted to still tip the cap to what we’d been for so long, but also gestured to the future and gestures to the sounds that we’re obsessed with, gestures to the world that we’re starting to create in this kind of room.”
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Le’aupepe also revealed that Gang of Youths recorded 15 versions of the track since he first started writing it four years ago. “It’s probably the only song that you’ll hear from us from now that sounds remotely kind of what we sounded like the previous kind of six to eight years that’s intriguing,” he said.
He continued by explaining why the group doesn’t have a firm release date for their follow-up to 2017’s Go Farther In Lightness. “The caveat is nothing with me, as Tom [Hobden] has found out in the two years, nothing with me is ever done,” Le’aupepe said, before revealing they scrapped the new album twice before giving it another attempt. “It’s ready when it’s ready. You know, I’m not, I’m not gonna rush it.
Hear Gang of Youths’ “The Angel of 8th Ave” below.
