After Anathema’s 2012 award-winning album Weather Systems and 2014’s spellbinding Distant Satellites, the ambient rockers are back with their eleventh full-length, The Optimist.
Due for release on June 9 via Kscope/Rocket The Optimist will soon reveal some of the darkest, most challenging and unexpected music the sextet have put their name to.
The first track to be released from the album is Springfield. Daniel Cavanagh explains the song choice “Here we present the song ‘Springfield’, it’s actually the song that closed our unforgettable Wembley gig with Opeth and it seemed to be a track that just fell into place without much effort. It seemed to do itself. The song forms part of a narrative that runs through The Optimist album, it’s a narrative that begins where A Fine Day To Exit left off. The album is a journey. The songs are ambiguous. There is no right or wrong way to take them. Make of them what you will.”
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8y1ROzCUpbU]
PRE ORDERS AVAILABLE NOW
The Optimist will be released on the following formats and all are available to pre-ordered now here:
www.nervegas.com.au/anathema
Deluxe 12” hardbook featuring:
40 page artwork book, with artwork from Travis Smith.
CD The Optimist 11 original album tracks
CD featuring 6 bonus tracks – 3 demo versions and 3 live demo recordings from their November 2016 dates
DVD-V The Optimist 11 original album tracks 24/96 LPCM Stereo & 24/96 DTS 5.1 surround mix
Blu-Ray disc The Optimist 11 original album tracks 24/96 LPCM Stereo, 24/96 LPCM 5.1 lossless surround mix & 24/96 DTS-HD Master Audio lossless 5.1 surround mix
2 Disc CD & DVD Mediabook
24 page booklet
CD The Optimist 11 original album tracks
DVD-V The Optimist 11 original album tracks 24/96 LPCM Stereo & 24/96 DTS 5.1 surround mix
Blu-Ray featuring
The Optimist 11 original album tracks 24/96 LPCM Stereo, 24/96 LPCM 5.1 lossless surround mix & 24/96 DTS-HD Master Audio lossless 5.1 surround mix
CD featuring:
The Optimist 11 original album tracks
Double gatefold 180g heavy weight LP featuring
The Optimist 11 original album tracks (with MP3 download code)
Limited Edition red vinyl LP version (with MP3 download code) available exclusively through the band’s webstore
Digital download featuring:
The Optimist 11 original album tracks with pre-orders receiving an instant download of “Springfield”
Anathema, led by brothers Daniel and Vincent Cavanagh, along with drummer John Douglas, singer Lee Douglas, bassist Jamie Cavanagh and drummer/keyboardist Daniel Cardoso began recording The Optimist in the winter of 2016 at Attica Audio in Donegal, Ireland and then finished at Castle Of Doom studios in Glasgow with producer Tony Doogan [Mogwai, Belle & Sebastian, Super Furry Animals] at the helm. Vincent elaborates on Doogan’s influence on the recording process “he suggested that we record as a live band, which we hadn’t done for years. Having played a few tunes on the last tour, we were ready for that. Tony wanted to capture that energy you can only get with everyone facing each other… it makes a big difference. He was a superb guy to work with and I learned a lot making this record”
The idea for The Optimist was born from the front cover artwork of the band’s 2001 album A Fine Day To Exit Daniel Cavanagh explains “I suppose you might say the album is semi-autobiographical because this time we used a surrogate,” he says, of the character that is The Optimist “We put sound, feelings and crucially, our own hopes and fears into another person and made him the subject of the songs then weaving my own internal monologue into the narrative of The Optimist. It was John’s idea to write a narrative, so I took A Fine Day To Exit as the starting point”. Vincent elaborates further on the earlier album’s artwork influence “The guy who disappeared – you never knew what happened to him, did he start a new life? Did he succumb to his fate? It was never explained. The opening track title is the exact coordinates for Silver Strand beach in San Diego – the last known location of The Optimist – shown on the cover of A Fine Day to Exit.”
To continue the theme further, the band brought back designer and illustrator Travis Smith to create the artwork for The Optimist. The artwork was created from a series of photographs Smith took on a West Coast road trip.
With the character’s unresolved destiny the three song writing members, meticulously brought the unfinished story to an end – and most strikingly of all – one which is decided by the listener.
