Walk the Moon, the kings of callback 80s synth-pop, are back with their third full album, What If Nothing, released Nov. 10 by RCA. After the surprising success of their sophomore album, TALKING IS HARD, back in 2014, which included their upbeat, heart-rate-inducing single “Shut Up and Dance,” the group took a three-year break in order to explore their respective lives, cancelling their summer 2016 tour in the process. During this hiatus, lead singer Nick Petricca took the time to care for his ailing father and explore his sexuality, elements both reflected in the new record.
“Surrender,” the third single on the album, pairs bass-driven synths with delicate piano notes, creating a ballad that’s meant to feel larger than life itself. Already the most stripped-down track on the project, the band posted an Instagram livestream on October 26 of the song without anything but Petricca and a piano, while the fully-produced song launched on Spotify and Apple Music the next day.
Like the late-night call you make after months of hesitance, the track details the deterioration of willpower inside one’s mind when reflecting on an old relationship drenched in warm sepia. Petricca and co. know he’s dreaming of a washed-up vision of the past, but he wishes to be immortalized as the subject’s “best ex-lover of [their] life.” Even if heartbreak is still an undiscovered feeling, “Surrender” makes you feel salt in some of the deepest of wounds, but who said that was a bad thing? Walk the Moon knows that words are power, and they use them like the greatest superheroes themselves.
You can listen to the entirety of What If Nothing on Spotify below.
