Twenty years into their quite prolific career, we know what Raleigh, North Carolina’s American Aquarium has to offer: it’s always solid, always heartfelt. Their latest album, New Ways to Lose, delivers clear-eyed reflections on small-town decline, personal responsibility, and the resilience needed to keep moving forward. The ten new tracks capture the band’s live energy (go see them when they’re in your area again), while adding subtle touches of harmony and horns that broaden their heartland rock sound without diluting its grit, in several ways Springsteen-esque at times.

The honest songwriting and ragged vocals of the sympathetic frontman BJ Barham remain the focal point, pairing vibrant confessionals with vivid snapshots of contemporary America that feel deeply personal yet widely relatable. It gives rise to goosebumps at several moments, such as in Out There In The Dark (“I think everyone of us was born an artist // A painter, a poet with a pen // Some run out of time, never learned to make it rhyme // And some of us refuse to give in”), and even more so in Just Like You (“Her little fingers trace the divots, of her last name carved in stone // When I see her, I see the women that taught me everything they knew”)—a sequel to 2022’s The First Year (anyone who has heard the introduction to that song live will never forget it).

Inspired by the idea that we’re all searching for new ways to lose, this record finds hope in perseverance rather than victory. It’s another powerful chapter from a band that continues to turn hard truths into communal, fist-raising anthems.

New Ways To Lose—produced by Shooter Jennings—is out now digitally, on CD and vinyl LP, through Losing Side Records/Thirty Tigers.

Add to wantlist: American Aquarium || Bandcamp || Discogs