Highly Suspect became a rare rock band to break through with 2016’s The Boy Who Died Wolf, which Rolling Stone called “a proud throwback to the muscular, glossed-up sludge of the post-Nirvana mid-Nineties.” The Massachusetts band was championed by Lyor Cohen, who signed them to his record label, 300 Entertainment, and the band were nominated for two Grammys and played Coachella and Lollapallooza.
The band are aiming higher on their third album MCID, out November 1st, embracing hip-hop with guest appearances by Young Thug, Tee Grizzley, and more. The band is also writing about more personal experiences. On the single, “16,” frontman Johnny Stevens wrote about about how his seven-year relationship fell apart when he learned that the child his girlfriend gave birth to was not his. “It took me .. seven years told hold you, one minute to lose you,” Stevens howls in the song, “Where did I go wrong?” It’s a true story; the band said they wanted to channel the “betrayal and regret” into music.
“The album centers around themes of self-loathing, substance abuse, image issues, addressing my past and changing my future,” Stevens says. “With a sprinkle of anti-Trump, false social media worship, heartbreak and hope.”
Stevens tackles those insecurities on “Upperdrugs,” which is all gloom (“I wanna sleep forever.”) “’Upperdrugs’ is a buck 20 on the highway and ’16’ is a Playstation 12,” Stevens said in a statment. “There has never been an album like the one we’re about to drop. I hope you grab the keys and take a ride somewhere by yourself, get so high your lips stick to your teeth until you crack a beer and zone on this front to back. It’s time and YOU deserve it.” The band kick off the first tour in a year on August 22nd.