His new album Loser On The Ropes will release on April 14.
Brian Dunne announces his new album Loser On The Ropes will release on April 14 via Kill Rock Stars. Along with the announcement, he shares the music video for his latest single "Bad Luck," a cautionary song that finds liberation in the "it can only go up from here" mentality.
"No one is getting out alive, so even though this song seems like a cautionary message, I actually thought it to be liberating," explains Dunne. "It's out of our control, so just get out there. You can be the most careful person in the world and then Billy Joel just drives into your fing house in the spring of 2004. This song is about that incident."
Recorded in Athens, GA, with producer Drew Vandenberg (Faye Webster, Of Montreal), Loser On The Ropes explores defeat and denial, fortune and faith, shame and redemption, all set against the backdrop of a world run by blowhards and bullsters who manage to perpetually skate by without cost or consequence.
The songs are lean and gritty, cutting straight to the heart of things with Dunne's raw, understated poeticism, but rather than getting lost in the darkness of it all, Loser On The Ropes emerges as something much more resilient and exhilarating.
This album is the work of an artist who sees the world for what it is and yet still refuses to grow jaded, who believes in the power of a song to help someone pick up the broken pieces of their life and feel whole again.
"I think a lot of us have internalized this need to say, 'No worries! It's all good!'" Dunne reflects. "It's not all good, though. The world's a sshow right now and we can't fix it if we don't talk about it. That's what this album is all about, both on a personal level and a much broader scale."
Bending the sounds of American rock into masterfully composed, wildly catchy renderings of being alive, Brian Dunne offers fully fleshed out character studies that examine the seemingly insignificant moments in life and the ways in which they have a lasting impact.
Last month, he shared the album's debut single "Sometime After This," receiving early attention from Pitchfork, BrooklynVegan and Atwood Magazine, who called the song "an intimate wash of hope in whatever lies ahead of us."
Operating with a DIY-ethos, Dunne has released a trio of widely respected albums, shared bills with everyone from Cat Power to Caroline Rose, and earned praise from the likes of Rolling Stone, who hailed "Chasing Down A Ghost" from 2020's Selling Things as "a stunner."
In 2021, he had an unexpected hit in the Netherlands when his standalone single "New Tattoo" reached #2 on the Spotify Viral 50 and landed him on a slew of Dutch national TV and radio programs. Within months, he had released his first album in the country and was onstage performing to an audience of 17,000 at Amsterdam's Ziggo Dome.
In 2022, Dunne launched the indie-folk-rock group Fantastic Cat with fellow singer/songwriters Anthony D'Amato, Don DiLego and Mike Montali, releasing their celebrated debut album The Very Best Of Fantastic Cat to widespread acclaim and a performance on CBS This Morning.
Brian Dunne will hit the road this spring in support of Loser On The Ropes. Find a full list of tour dates below.
April 14 - New York, NY @ Mercury Lounge
April 15 - Northampton, MA @ Parlor Room
April 22 - Exeter, NH @ Word Barn
April 23 - Boston, MA @ Passim
May 4 - Lake Orion, MI @ 20 Front St
May 5 - Grand Rapids, MI @ Pyramid Scheme
May 6 - Milwaukee, WI @ Colectivo Back Room
May 7 - Chicago, IL @ Schubas
May 10 - Philadelphia, PA @ MilkBoy
May 12 - Asbury Park, NJ @ Transparent Clinch
May 17 - Charlotte, NC @ Evening Muse
May 18 - Nashville, TN @ The Basement
May 20 - Clearwater, FL @ Wiley's
May 21 - Decatur, GA @ Eddie's Attic
Videos