Nowhere Generation is the ninth studio album by American punk rock band Rise Against, released on June 4, 2021 on Loma Vista Recordings. The band debuted the album’s title track on March 17, 2021.
After the completion of the touring cycle for 2017’s Wolves and the release of their acoustic album The Ghost Note Symphonies, Vol. 1, frontman Tim McIlrath revealed in a May 2019 interview with Kerrang! that the band was writing new music, but that they would be employing a more relaxed approach to the writing process. “Yes, we are writing,” McIlrath stated in the interview. “We’re getting together and playing ideas, but I wouldn’t hold your breath. The one thing that we have decided is that we don’t want to feel rushed, we’ll put out the record when it’s done, not to try and meet some deadline.” This was further reinforced in a July 2020 interview with Danny Wimmer Presents with McIlrath confirming (in relation to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic) that the band was “not going anywhere,” and further clarifying “we have new music, we have it all – this isn’t the end, this is just a new beginning.”
“I know we’re slippin’ through the cracks now
No place left on your map now to call home
We are the kids that no one wants
We are a credible threat to the rules you set
A cause to be alarmed
We are not the names that we’ve been given
We speak a language you don’t know
We are the nowhere generation
The nowhere generation, oh-whoa”
Following the album’s announcement in March 2021, the band outlined the themes and messaging behind the record in a press release, stating that “today there is the promise of the American Dream, and then there is the reality of the American Dream. America’s ‘historical norm’ that the next generation will be better off than the one that came before has been diminished by an era of mass social, economic and political instability and a sell-out of the middle class. The brass ring that was promised by hard work and dedication no longer exists for everyone. When the privileged climb the ladder of success and then burn it from the top, disruption becomes the only answer.”
The music video for the title track is right under one million views on YouTube. Watch and listen here.
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