The Van Pelt returns with a brand-new album, Remain Obscure, out September 18 via Ernest Jenning Record Co., which is further testament to the veteran’s group ongoing evolution and musical tenacity.
If the 2023 effort Artisans & Merchants served as evidence of musicians who were intent on expanding their musical vision and vocabulary, this new collection continues that trend with its unapologetic guitars, broad sonic expanse, and lyrical honesty.
Remain Obscure is a weighty reminder that The Van Pelt’s influences are culled from a broad palette and the loud guitars, powerful rhythm section, and small but appropriate flourishes which populate these songs offer evidence that the unit has never and will not draw from the obvious well of influences. The Van Pelt is not the sound of a college student’s record collection in 1978. It’s something deeper and, yes, more obscure.
Emerging from the New York City music scene of the 1990s, The Van Pelt issued two essential efforts, Stealing From Our Favorite Thieves (1996) and Sultans Of Sentiment (1997), disbanding after the latter but leaving behind them an impressive legacy and memories that continued to capture the imagination of audiences new and old.
They reunited in 2009 and again in 2014 with a lost album, Imaginary Third, tumbling out into the world and taking its rightful place next to the others as an outstanding work.
Some might find that Remain Obscure is a collection of songs about the process of aging and the realizations that arrive about friendships past and promises kept or missed (“Kris Is Riding Horses In Ojai”), the perils of long-term commitment when it drains partners of vitality (“Flaws of Attraction”), or the sheer terror of being able to see everything clearly (“Lawrence, KS”).
Perhaps these ideas and emotions are precisely what Chris Leo intended in writing the lyrics or perhaps these are the realities that listeners will discover as they slowly discover themselves through the songs.
Whatever the case, Remain Obscure is a record well worth embracing as it shows there is still a path, and an exciting one at that, for The Van Pelt.
Host/Producer: Jedd Beaudoin
Theme music: Torin Andersen
