The rock track appears on the band’s upcoming album ‘The Fear of Standing Still,’ produced by Shooter Jennings
American Aquarium lean into the punk side of their sound in the new song “Crier,” the first track off their upcoming album The Fear of Standing Still. Out July 26 via Losing Side Records/Thirty Tigers, it’s the band’s second collaboration with producer Shooter Jennings, who oversaw Aquarium’s 2020 album Lamentations.
In “Crier,” frontman BJ Barham dissects the notion that men aren’t supposed to show open emotion. “If you are here then you’ve been hurt/it’s ok to be a crier,” he sings over a guitar riff that calls to mind vintage Social Distortion. Barham cowrote “Crier” with Stephen Wilson Jr., who himself addresses what it means to be a vulnerable man on his 2023 album Son of Dad.
Barham says “Crier,” a rambunctious rock track, is meant to poke holes in masculine stereotypes over repeated listens. “I don’t think anyone’s going to get through that first listen of ‘Crier’ and think, ‘Wow, what a great song about disrupting the cycle of toxic masculinity!’” he says in a statement. “It seems more likely that it’ll make them want to dance and jump around, and then when they put the headphones on and listen a little closer to the lyrics, that’s when they’ll start to understand what we’re talking about.”
The Fear of Standing Still is the follow-up to 2022’s Chicamacomico. American Aquarium will support the new album with a headlining tour kicking off May 8 at the Granada Theater in Lawrence, Kansas. They’ll also open for Turnpike Troubadours on May 9 at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colorado.
Along with the studio version of “Crier,” American Aquarium released a live performance video.