a beautiful blur Tracklist
a beautiful blur is LANY’s fifth studio album. The album marks their first without founding member and keyboardist Les Priest, who left the band in 2022.
The band’s new era was announced via a post on their social media accounts on May 29, 2023, with the message:
You’ve spent your whole life looking at ‘em or looking to ‘em… but now it’s time to start being one of ‘em. you’re the star of your story… the only one you get to write, and the only one [to] get it right. welcome to the next chapter of our band, this family, and the rest of your life ★
This was followed by the announcement of the release date of the album and the teaser of the first of the four singles, “Congrats”. The second single was “Love At First Fight”, which was released June 7, 2023. The third and fourth singles were “Alonica”, released on July 7, 2023, and “XXL” released on August 4, 2023.
“a beautiful blur” Q&A
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Translations
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What have the artists said about the album?
Paul Klein:
i wrote the first song for this album on december 18, 2021. that was 526 days ago. god that’s so much time. 5 + 2 + 6 = 13 which is the best number so obviously that’s the number of songs on the new album. my hands are shaking rn. i’m so wound up. nothing in the world means more to me than this music and u. i want u to like it so bad. jake, myself, and our entire team have poured so much love and intentionality and detail into every part of this next chapter. […] i’m fucking exhausted. but i’m so in love with my band and so head over heels for this life. thank u for riding w me!!!!!!! i wanna make u proud.
—via Instagram
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What have the artists said about the album name change?
In a newsletter sent to their fans, Paul Jason Klein explained:
in october of last year, we were in tokyo to play a festival and start our “a november to remember” tour. after a night out with the entire team, i was in the backseat of a cab heading back to my hotel room. i stuck my head out of the window to soak up the magic of the night, and antony tried to take a photo. it was a blurry mess. a beautiful blur. in that moment, with all of the early rough drafts of almost every song on the album already in my notes app, i knew that was the title.
somewhere along the way, during the piecing-together and finalizing process of making the album, i started to question every single artistic decision… desperate to find and to even just graze perfection. with jake’s support thru it all, we landed on “i really really hope so” and wanted to put ourselves on the cover for the very first time.
honestly, i’ve never thought a photograph (of us, specifically) could capture the true essence, breadth, and depth of an album. i now believe this more than ever! however, this does not take away the authenticity and vulnerability of the concept around “i really really hope so.” that truth is deeply embedded into the fabric and dna of the album.
P.S. – this is why most of our press photos are blurry! because, at the time of this photoshoot, the title was still “a beautiful blur.”
a month or so ago, we were back in japan to headline our stage at summer sonic… a bigger milestone for us than i can currently even comprehend. jake, myself, our manager, and a few others from our team found ourselves at an underground vinyl bar called “grandfather’s” in tokyo. an older gentleman, the “grandfather,” was hand selecting every single song. he would take the vinyl sleeve of the corresponding song that was playing and place it on this sort of rack/pedestal for all in the bar to see.
i felt sick to my stomach. i knew we had to change the cover and title, but i was scared to bring it up. we had spent the last 6 months designing the artwork, preparing the release, doing preliminary interviews, and rolling out singles attached to the album title “i really really hope so”…. but this is FOREVER, and every decision we have ever made has been thru the lens of “forever.”
after a few audible swear words and me prefacing the proposition with “okay, i absolutely hate what i’m about to say and i’m so sorry”… i suggested we change everything. and, thank god, everyone was aligned and we got to work immediately.
