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Whitney Press Shot 2022 Please Credit Tonje Thilesen

Whitney announce third album with lead single "REAL LOVE"

16 June 2022, 15:32 | Written by Cerys Kenneally

Chicago duo Whitney have returned with news of their third album SPARK, and have unveiled the lead single "REAL LOVE".

Aside from releasing their Candid covers album in 2020, Whitney haven't shared new material since 2019's Forever Turned Around, but today (16 June) they're back with "REAL LOVE", the first outing from their third album SPARK.

The new song arrives with a Aaron Brown-directed video, and was written in June 2021, "right after a cross country move back to Chicago," Julien Ehlrich explains. "I was experiencing heightened levels of anxiety and panic, while the entire city was re-emerging from isolation. I’ve been running away from and self medicating my anxiety for as long as I can remember, but for whatever reason, it felt like it was time to dive straight into it. During late night sessions over a two week period, we captured the embrace of anxiety and fear in a way that resonated with us immediately. We spent the next few summer nights driving on Ashland with the windows down and the song turned up. It felt like an emotional and musical burst of light and we’re so grateful to finally be sharing that with people."

SPARK came together during the pandemic, which allowed the duo time to reflect on the start of their career. "We had time to just sit and watch the body of work grow in real time," Ehlrich says. "We were just stacking stronger and stronger songs on top of each other." Max Kakacek adds, "Our favourite way to make records, the way we made the first one."

Tracklist:

  1. NOTHING REMAINS
  2. BACK THEN
  3. BLUE
  4. TWIRL
  5. REAL LOVE
  6. MEMORY
  7. SELF
  8. NEVER CROSSED MY MIND
  9. TERMINAL
  10. HEART WILL BEAT
  11. LOST CONTROL
  12. COUNTY LINES
"REAL LOVE" is out now. Whitney's SPARK album will arrive 16 September via Secretly Canadian, and is available to pre-order now. They'll play London's O2 Academy Brixton on 23 November. Tickets go on general sale 1 July at 10am BST from whitneytheband.com.
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