When we first identified Font as a Band To Watch two years ago, the group was primarily associated with the dance-punk genre. However, their latest output suggests a significant evolution in their sound. The band has officially announced their upcoming album, American Bully XL, which serves as the follow-up to their 2024 release, Strange Burden. To mark the announcement, they have shared the lead single, “Texas,” a shimmering, stuttering track that draws sonic parallels to the Austin-based group Hovvdy.
The creative process for American Bully XL began during a pivotal trip to California, where the band recorded at Dutch Interior’s studio in Long Beach. The album’s development was deeply influenced by the somber reality of the Kerr Country Flood, which occurred while the band was away. Frontman Thom Waddill reflected on the emotional weight of that period:
Pretty much everyone I know from home was just one or two degrees away from someone who lost a loved one in the flood. So the state was on our minds when we came up with the initial idea together in one of our final improv sessions in the Long Beach studio. The file of the idea that we passed around for months was just called “Texas.” I was intimidated by writing a song with that title. It wasn’t until I moved up to Brooklyn months later that I found the chords and lyrics to put on top of it. I was listening to a lot of country, like a lot of people do after they move away from Texas. There’s a lot of Lyle Lovett in this song.
You can listen to the new single below:
American Bully XL is scheduled for release on November 13 via Acrophase. The tracklist is as follows:
- 01 “Bad Faith”
- 02 “Punish Task”
- 03 “Night Sight”
- 04 “Noon Room”
- 05 “Wilderness2”
- 06 “Cling”
- 07 “Texas”
- 08 “You”
- 09 “Bang Bang”
- 10 “Atom”
- 11 “American Bully XL”
