There comes a point in every lifer band’s arc where the mirage evaporates. You look around, count the years, look at your bank account, and realize the economic vice grip isn’t letting up. Your country is getting dumber, meaner, and louder by the week. You’ve played every stage from punk houses in Detroit to the hallowed Hollywood Bowl. You’ve buried parents, watched friends fade out, and taken on the heavy, terrifying mantle of starting families of your own. You realize you’re the next generation now, and the choices you make carry real weight.
If you’re the Detroit quartet Bonny Doon, you don’t dwell on misfortune and hardship. Instead, you get together twice a week, turn up the amps, and make the most refined, red-blooded record of your lives. Today they are announcing Forever Green, their fourth studio album, coming out February 5 on ANTI-. Forever Green is the sound of a band shedding every last bit of self-consciousness to embrace exactly who they are— a veteran collective arriving at a new plateau through hard-earned conviction and straightforward delivery.
The record’s heart beats the hardest on the lead single, ‘Lucky Ones.’ Built on a sweeping, heartland rock foundation, it’s a working-class anthem for a moment defined by economic malaise, a widening gap between the haves and have-nots, and the frustration of putting in honest work without the promised payoff. “I want to know how it feels to be one of the lucky ones,” lead vocalist Bill Lennox sings—not with bitterness, but with the earnest hope of someone who still dares to yearn.
Listen to ‘Lucky Ones’
“Most people scrape by and can barely afford to live despite working their ass off,” Lennox reflects. “Meanwhile the rich get richer and those in power are doing everything they can to suppress the rights and dignity of working-class people. It’s kind of a culmination of grievance and frustration both personal and collective. In my case, 12 years into a band, 12 years older, still bartending until 3am, the body doesn’t recover like it used to. You can sometimes feel like your dues have been paid, and you’re waiting on something to get easier or fall into place. I know a lot of people that feel like that.”
After a streak of acclaimed musical output, including 2018’s Longwave, Bonny Doon was recruited to help shape what would become the fabled Saint Cloud era for Waxahatchee. “When I heard Longwave, it changed my life,” Katie Crutchfield told Rolling Stone. “There’s so much spaciousness that you just want to live inside of it.” Anchoring Crutchfield’s milestone Americana pivot as core studio players and touring backing band, the group deepened their collective musicianship and set a new direction for their own future work.
Throughout the record, Forever Green balances biting reality with their trademark unwavering ease. These are songs both meant to be played loud and to sway to on warm nights, rooted like the craft of simple cooking: using just a few high-quality ingredients, letting them simmer, and trusting their inherent flavor. Bonny Doon has survived the grind, outlasted the hype cycles, and came through the other side with something far more valuable: a bone-deep appreciation for the time they get to spend together. They understand the genuine, rare privilege of sitting in a room with your best friends, filling air with sound, and making art that feels real. Forever Green is raw, homespun, and completely their own.
Bonny Doon
Forever Green
1. Cry With Me
2. Sliding Glass Door
3. Lucky Ones
4. So Close to the Edge
5. Clock Keeps Ticking
6. Right in the Eye
7. All of My
8. Forever Green
9. End of the Line
10. Long Have You Wandered
https://bonnydoontheband.com/
Instagram | YouTube | Facebook
