Matthew Dear announces "lost album" from 2008 with two tracks "Muscle Beach" and "Supper Times"

"Muscle Beach" and "Supper Times" are the first two tracks to be shared from the album, which features 11 songs in total.

Dear says of "Muscle Beach", ""Muscle Beach" is about a juvenile thief. I picture my father in the role, using images I have of him during his youth. He was from South Texas, during a time when anyone with Hispanic traces in their blood were immediately marked trouble. While my father shared some great tales with me, he never stole anything or was shot at. Instead, I see him as the quick witted kid just trying to escape meaningless oppression. He was proud of his character, and I know it would have killed him inside to be thought of as anything less than stellar. That’s him in muscle beach, just trying to get away from the dangerous pitfalls of being caught in the wrong place."

He adds of the second track, ""Supper Times" is about me, as a twenty something wild kid getting a little too close to the edge. I usually wrote from the perspective of the good angel on my shoulder, or my wife Jen. Basically, the song says I can’t keep patching you up indefinitely, so you better figure this shit out or else. My music has been mostly a place for me to spell out some confusions and conflicts with just being me."

Dear says of the album, "Thinking about this album’s material recently, I realised the benefit of having so much time away from these songs from an analytical perspective. I’m not the same person I was two decades ago. Who is? As a songwriter, this is great. I remember in surprising details things about the songs. Where I was, what I was trying to say, what I was trying to hide behind. Now in my 40’s, I can talk about those things freely without too much trouble. I’ve moved on from those places. I’m now the shrink sitting across from the younger gentleman laying on the chaise."

"I love hearing how free and raw a lot of the production is," he adds. "As we age, we get trapped in thinking our output or creativity needs to mature as well. Some of that is unavoidable, but listening to these songs reminds me to not think so much. It’s important to be in that world without consequence from time to time."

Tracklist:

1. Muscle Beach
2. Sow Down
3. Hikers Y
4. Never Divide
5. All Her Fits
6. Supper Times
7. Crash And Burn
8. Heart To Sing
9. Eye
10. Head
11. Gutters And Beyond