On March 15, Nothing But Thieves announced via their newsletter their new single and album title track, “Dead Club City.” Newsletter members were the first to gain access to the single’s music video.

“Dead Club City,” The band’s fourth studio album, follows their critically successful 2020 album, “Moral Panic,” rife with political rock anthems and introspective lyrics sung by none other than frontman Conor Mason.

The band also announced The DCC World Tour on their Instagram a day later. Australia and North America will be their first stops on tour, with the band writing, “It’s been far too long, and we are absolutely thrilled to be back.”

The new single, DCC, continues the band’s adventures into electro-rock fusion, shifting from their indie and alt-rock roots. If I’m correct, DCC either samples Daft Punk’s “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” during the chorus or draws inspiration from the cymbals in Daft Punk’s song. Perhaps this is an ode to their inspiration for this album.

I won’t lie, “Moral Panic” took a while to grow on me. I wasn’t immediately hooked by the more EDM-esque songs. It took several listen-throughs before I could fully appreciate the orchestration of songs like “Always Drift Away” and “Unperson.” Even now, I wouldn’t call “Moral Panic” their strongest album. I don’t usually listen to it all the way through when it pops up in my rotation. However, I can and always will appreciate the political commentary of their discography which is featured heavily in songs from “Moral Panic” like “Phobia, Moral Panic, Unperson, etc.”

Despite my original hesitation, Moral Panic showed the band’s ability to expand into different genres and allowed Conor to continue flexing his amazing voice, which has never failed to drop my jaw. The range this man has is impeccable. It wasn’t until NBT released the deluxe version of “Moral Panic” that I finally found my favorite songs on the album. I absolutely love “Futureproof,” a song that describes the chase for likes, views, and content. Futureproof never fails to get me hyped for a workout. Additionally “Miracle, Baby” just has a synth I totally vibe with and of course, Conor’s signature falsetto.

What we can expect

I’m excited to see what DCC will bring. From what I can tell based on the title track, it sounds like the band is building a dystopian narrative, which they’ve never done before. Maybe we will see interactive content—the band is active on discord. With the rise of NFTs and Facebook pushing the Metaverse, a digital component to their album might make NBT stand out above the competition.

Nothing But Thieves’ fourth album releases on July 7, with more songs expected to drop as we get closer to July.

Image Credits: Chloe Chaplin.