Even though Ben Jorgensen of Armor for Sleep told me last November during their 15 year anniversary show that new music was on the horizon, I really didn’t believe it would be this soon! But sure enough, a few weeks ago, the band released their fourth album, Rain Museum, out into the world.
Firstly – nostalgia! This is the kind of record I think I and many others were expecting to come out after What to Do When You Are Dead. Instead we got Smile for Them, which I ultimately did like, but it just totally flipped their style on its head. It was harder to get used to, but listening to it now, I liked it more than I thought at the time. All that to say though that this new record is it! While tonally it’s reminiscent of What to Do When You Are Dead, it comes across in a more mature and sometimes very somber way. “Basement Ghost” is a song my mind kept flipping back to during a lot of the songs off this new record. It felt very much in that same vein.
Thematically though, this record is taking on the tale of a love that’s ending. Back last fall Jorgensen revealed that over the course of the pandemic he and his wife decided to get a divorce. That led him to some really difficult spaces, and he said that’s likely what most of the next record was going to be about. Thus, Rain Museum, is very much about the end of that love. You can tell in all of the lyrics throughout the album, and even more so in the handful of music videos that have been released in support of the singles. Heck, the first video even featured a married couple starting off happy and then in chaos!
Overall, I really enjoyed listening to this record, although no song in particular really stood out to me. It all worked really well together as one body of work, but in that nothing really jumped out as the capstone to the whole album. In this case, I don’t really find that to be a bad thing. In fact, this is a record I see myself going back to time and time again in the future and loving it front to back. It almost sounded like one song to me that took a journey, and that’s something that doesn’t happen too often. Regardless, I’m thrilled these guys are back and I hope they keep touring and making more music in the future!