Iron by Post Animal
When Post Animal stepped into the studio for their new album, it was the first time all six original members were in the studio together for nearly a decade. Three band members had recently relocated away from Chicago, not to mention Joe Keery having left the band in 2017 to focus on acting. In the end they started right back up at the beginning, rediscovering that uncompromising closeness of connection they all shared from those endless hours spent in practice spaces and the late-night diner runs that follow. Prolonged stretches of time together not only reinforced the strength of their friendship—it reinvigorated their music. “If you want to get one hour of good painting in, you have to have four hours of uninterrupted time,” David Lynch once said. The product of a few straight weeks together, IRON (due July 25th) not only finds them reunited with Keery but is the embodiment of 30 days of camaraderie and unbound musical exploration, their renewed connection ironclad.
After 2022’s sublime Love Gibberish, Post Animal found themselves sunk deeper into their work than ever before. That record was their first released independently, with all the extra effort that entails. They also toured extensively, both on their own and with UK psych band Temples. By the time things started settling down, Post Animal was scattered to the wind. Guitarist Javi Reyes and drummer Wesley Toledo dropped back home to Chicago, while guitarist Matt Williams moved to Los Angeles, bassist Dalton Allison decamped for Ithaca, and multi-instrumentalist Jake Hirshland relocated to Brooklyn. “There was some burnout happening,” Allison says. “We were ruthlessly fighting and grinding.”
But then Keery showed up at a New York tour stop, and the idea was hatched that they cut another record—all six band members together again, for the first time since 2017. “When we made When I Think of You in a Castle, that was near the start of Stranger Things,” Keery recalls. “And now with it kind of coming to an end in my own life, we all felt it'd be great to do something like that again, to go somewhere and be isolated and work on music together. It was a labor of love.” A big part of that process was focusing on the experience rather than putting pressure on an outcome. “We all agreed that even if we went and just hung out, we’d be happy with it,” Toledo says. “We're just heartfelt, sentimental, and emotional, but there was a real positivity and optimism among us.” They would set up camp at the Indiana home of their friends Malcolm Brown and Charles Glanders, an A-frame tucked into some woodlands with massive windows for views of the fall foliage. In addition to the lush surroundings, the band’s hosts pitched in: Glanders engineered the tracks with Allison, while Brown inspired via chef-caliber meals. “We got back to our roots, hanging out and writing music without the expectations or pressure,” Hirshland says.
The creativity driven by comfort is apparent from the opening instrumental track; “Malcolm’s Cooking” was recorded in part on a balcony overlooking the woods, complete with the humid wind, insect whirring, and euphorically clinking bottles. Lead single “Last Goodbye” follows, a slow-loping look at the end of a relationship, a point in time somehow both uneasy and familiar. “I try to love every corner of your mind/ But we’ve been going off the deep end,” they sing, buffeted by choppy acoustic, prickly electric staccato, and waves of harmony. There’s a vintage AM radio glow to follow-up “Pie in the Sky”, a giddy-up bass and thumping percussion giving way to layered harmony. “Make me wanna sell my soul for just a bit of your shine/ How am I gonna fill this hole, if your heart ain’t mine?” they sigh in a fit of honest, unadorned adoration.
“This record felt like a revitalization of our friendships and our band,” Hirshland says. “We always work collaboratively, but it’s amazing how reintroducing Joe into the mix brought back that dynamic from 2017.” Keery agrees, noting both how close they’ve remained and also much has changed since their last work together. "We're all still such great friends, but now everybody has a lot more experience under their belts," he says. "I was just appreciative to be spending this time, knowing we might not get another chance to do this the way we're doing it right now. The record reflects that enjoyment, and you can feel the fun." Not only did the six members work closely together, each brought in song ideas and took their turn taking the lead. In perhaps the most intimate example, the glistening, punchy “Maybe You Have To” opens with a voicemail of Toledo’s abuela prior to her passing. The track that follows stares at the pain of that loss, unflinchingly. “The song is about coming to terms with death, with the absence of someone you love,” he says. “She was a warrior.”
Even when IRON touches on heavy themes, Post Animal finds fluidity and strength in their compositions—a clear result of sharing so much time together. Members of the group would come and go from the home studio, a free-flowing stream of ideas. “This is the easiest experience I’ve had making an album,” Williams says. Reyes agrees, noting that ease comes from understanding—and growing from—your past: “It’s a return to ourselves, but down the road, feeling better than we ever have.”
Throughout the album, Post Animal use that honed edge to push and pull at genre threads, imbuing some synthpop here and some folk there, vintage radio rock on one track and twitchy psychedelia on the next. Like the six sides of a die, the members of Post Animal each brought their own energy and style into an interconnected whole. Whether in the tumbling, interlocking eightn notes of the sugary “Common Denominator” or the cloudlike, piano-driven title track, IRON lives deliciously in its moment, in the room. Or, as Hirshland explains it: “This is an exploration of being alive and in this group of friends.” The beguiling “Setting Sun” churns and flares across that spectrum, opening on a burnt synth wash, a chunky electric guitar matching the lead vocals step for step. Psych pop “Dorien Kregg”, meanwhile, taps into some Elephant 6 orchestral energy, Allison taking on the mantle of the title character with childlike glee. “I remember Jake coming home from a grocery run and I was standing in the driveway being a creep, channeling this character,” Allison laughs.
Surreal ideas like that only come about (let alone get chased down to such a brilliant conclusion) with the punchy energy that comes from a month of working this closely together. IRON puts the listener directly into the room with the band, freewheeling and experimental yet played with precision. That atmosphere should be palpable as the band hits the road with Keery’s Djo project, Toledo and Reyes pulling double duty as well by working in his backing band—the whole group getting to spend even more time together. “We’re having fun making things that we’re proud of. It’s a more mature period for us as collaborators and as friends,” Reyes says. “We’re all vibing with each other creatively, enjoying the momentum and our friendship.” Allison vehemently agrees: “All of these creative forces coming together, it was like iron sharpening iron,” he says. “When we’re in proximity with one another, we make each other better.”
Tracklist
| 1. | Malcolm’s Cooking | |
| 2. | Last Goodbye | 4:11 |
| 3. | Maybe You Have To | |
| 4. | Setting Sun | |
| 5. | Pie in the Sky | |
| 6. | What’s a Good Life | |
| 7. | Main Menu | |
| 8. | Dorien Kregg | |
| 9. | Common Denominator | |
| 10. | Iron | |
Credits
All songs written & produced by Post Animal (Dalton Allison, Jake Hirshland, Joe Keery, Javier Reyes, Wesley Toledo, Matt Williams)
Engineered by Dalton Allison & Charles Glanders
Mixed by Adam Thein & Dalton Allison
Mastered by Jared Hirshland
