Copenhagen’s Lowly have announced details of Keep Up The Good Work, the band’s third record and the follow-up to 2019’s Hifalutin. Crafted during the isolation of pandemic lockdowns, the band describes the headspace of writing it as:

We know each other really well after 8 years as friends, colleagues and collective creators. We know what we’re each going through in life, and we can hear it in the music we make together; it’s always a personal reflection of us in the given moment. You can hear that we’ve become older, that we have more to tell. During the pandemic we experienced both the joys of having children and the sorrow of losing people we cared for. Life and death struck us, you could say, which maybe seems rather banal or cliché to be writing about. But for that reason, we think this record speaks universally, and has the potential of resonating with many people.

Lowly Announce “Keep Up The Good Work” @ Bella Union

As an introduction, they’ve released the title track of the new album, which features a number of vocal samples of the band’s social media followers, offering affirmations and well wishes. On how that came about:

We asked people to send us recordings of what they would say to the people they cared for to give encouragement or support. Our DMs were flooded with positive affirmations and personal stories about what people tell their kids, friends and loved ones. Many of them are quite simple, but also effective thoughts to meditate upon, instead of focusing on something destructive you’d otherwise bang your head against.

Soffie Viemose, Lowly
Lowly Announce “Keep Up The Good Work” @ Bella Union

It’s an unexpectedly simple and direct song, considering how oblique much of their first two records are, but is too warm and inviting to resist. That said, I hope they haven’t gone too straight – I do still like having my ears and head bent a little bit.

Keep Up The Good Work is out February 17 of next year.