Bear's Den Debuts Title Track From 'Blue Hours' Album

Acclaimed U.K.-based band Bear's Den debuts their new track, "Blue Hours," which premiered on Jo Whiley's BBC Radio 2 show yesterday.

Of the song, Bear's Den says, "Fundamentally 'Blue Hours' is a song about communicating with someone that's hard to reach. It's this idea of trying to have a conversation with someone through one way glass, where they can't even see you and there's a real disconnect with how you're communicating. On one level, it's also an internal thing, where you're trying to get through to yourself."

The new track is the latest to be revealed from the band's fourth studio album, Blue Hours, set for release on May 13 via Communion Records. Band members Andrew Davie and Kevin Jones once again team up with producer Ian Grimble on what is one of their most personal records to date. In addition, the band has previously released songs "Spiders," "All That You Are" and "Shadows."

Themes on the album include both self-reflection and mental health after both struggled with the latter in recent years. "It's the main over-arching theme with this record," Davie explains. "It probably speaks to our struggles and hopefully many other people's too. Men are not very good at talking. We're not really taught how to - men have no idea how to talk about this stuff, certainly to each other."

Despite the album's challenging themes, it's an album drenched in hope too. "We wanted this to be a celebration of music," Jones continues. "I think that informed some of the bolder decision making on this record. At a time when music was so distant, it felt important to make an album that sounded hopeful, celebratory, ambitious and beautiful in spite of the heavy subject matter in some of the songs." Jones adds: "It was almost like we needed to shout louder than before because we felt that there were more barriers between the audience and us. We needed something to transcend that."

The group also confirms an extensive run of U.K., European and North American tour dates. The set of U.S. tour dates kicks off in early September and include performances at New York's Webster Hall, Los Angeles' Troubadour, Nashville's The Basement East, Chicago's Thalia Hall, D.C.'s 9:30 Club and more. Full tour routing can be found below.

The London-based band played music in various incarnations before officially forming in 2012. Their 2014 debut album, Islands, earned them an Ivor Novello nomination-the U.K.'s most prestigious songwriting accolade-alongside notable acts Ben Howard and Hozier, while their 2016 album, Red Earth & Pouring Rain, reached #6 on the U.K. album chart. Last year, the band released their third studio album, So that you might hear me, to critical praise both stateside and abroad. The band has sold 500,000 records over the course of their career and after four years of nonstop touring has sold over 150,000 tickets worldwide including global festival appearances at Bonnaroo and Glastonbury.

Listen to the new single here:

Tour Dates

April 23-Oslo, NO-Parkteatret
April 24-Stockholm, SE-Debaser
April 26-Copenhagen, DK-Studie 2
April 28-Berlin, DE- Astra
April 29-Hamburg, DE-Fabrik
May 1-Amsterdam, NL-Paradiso
May 2-Amsterdam, NL-Paradiso
May 5-Zurich, CH-Kaufleuten
May 7-Cologne, DE-Carlswerk Victoria
May 9-Brussels, BE-Ancienne Belgique
May 17-Bristol, UK-O2 Academy
May 18-London, UK- Eventim Apollo
May 21-Dublin, IE-Olympia
May 22-Manchester, EN-Albert Hall
May 23-Glasgow, UK-O2 Academy
May 25-Newcastle, EN-Newcastle University
May 26-Birmingham, EN-O2 Institute
May 27-Leeds, EN-Leeds University Stylus
September 8-Dallas, TX-The Studio at The Factory
September 9-Austin, TX-Emo's
September 11-Nashville, TN-The Basement East
September 12-Atlanta, GA-Variety Playhouse
September 14-Ardmore, PA-Ardmore Music Hall
September 15-New York, NY-Webster Hall
September 16-Washington, DC-9:30 Club
September 17-Boston, MA-Royale
September 20-Toronto, ON-Danforth Music Hall
September 21-Chicago, IL-Thalia Hall
September 23-Minneapolis, MN-Varsity Theater
September 24-Iowa City, IA-The Englert Theatre
September 25-Kansas City, MO-Knuckleheads Saloon
September 27-Denver, CO-Bluebird Theater
September 28-Salt Lake City, UT-The CommonWealth Room
September 30-Seattle, WA-Neptune Theatre
October 1-Vancouver, BC-Vogue Theatre
October 3-Portland, OR-Revolution Hall
October 5-Felton, CA-Felton Music Hall
October 6-San Francisco, CA-August Hall
October 8-West Hollywood, CA-Troubadour

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