Cat No: BELLA943V

A1 Calm Down AKA I Should Not Be Alone
A2 Evening Prayer AKA Justice
A3 Transition From Nowhere To Nowhere
A4 Rated R Crusaders
A5 Trauma
A6 Thermometer
B1 I Wanna Be Your Girlfriend
B2 Blown
B3 My Teeth Hurt
B4 In America
B5 What Can You Do But Rock ‘N’ Roll
B6 On Your Own

This is our punk record, says Ezra Furman, introducing his new album Twelve Nudes, yet another incendiary and inspiring classic from the singer/ songwriter/ guitarist/bandleader. We made it in Oakland, quickly. We drank and smoked. Then we made the loud parts louder. I hurt my voice screaming. This was back in 2018, when things were bad in the world. The songs are naked with nothing to hide.

Immediate proof is offered by Calm Down (aka I Should Not Be Alone), the albums insanely catchy opening track and lead single, bound up in a compact two minutes and 22 seconds. Calm Down is so desperate, and not what I want to say about the world, says Furman. I think we curate our reactions to current news because were overwhelmed by how bad it is, and I noticed I was suppressing how bad I truly felt. I wanted music that gave me permission to feel how it felt to live in a broken world, which punk rock does.

Furmans preceding album, 2018s Transangelic Exodus, was an angry and fearful and pent-up reaction to events too, he recalls. But it was a carefully written and recorded version; we took a lot of time with edits and overdubs. I knew I wanted I make this album quickly and not spend time thinking how to play the songs. Twelve Nudes is a body more than a mind record – more animal than intellectual., And by affirming negativity, it gives you energy, to reject stuff. Theres more space for positivity.