Bleachers have just announced a special re-recording of their debut album, Strange Desire, which will now be titled A Stranger Desired.
Sharing the news on their official social media accounts, frontman Jack Antonoff penned a heartfelt letter to the band’s fans explaining how much emotional weight the record has for him, given that it came from an integral place in his life at that specific point in time. Together with the letter, Antonoff also shared details regarding the release date of the re-recording, announcing its first single to drop on August 2, 2024, while the full record is scheduled to be released later on in September 6, 2024. Read the full letter of Antonoff to his fans below:
“i didn’t sleep or call home enough. the hotel at night had me restless. i wrote from there. a burning i felt was set to take me down if i didn’t name it and know it. from the low juno 6 in my headphones to the chopping piano hits of early “i wanna get better” – as the most unlikely bed to tell my life story in three verses – i saw the way out. it was odd to run away when everything was coming together on paper for me, but you do not get to control the direction your gut points no matter how inconvenient. strange desire was born in this rough time with the full armor of sonic chaos. voices fluttering around me, hotel room walls echoing in the vocal takes, layers on layers and the low end of that juno gluing the kitchen sink together as it still does for my band. it was the sound that i called bleachers. that feeling of being there but in no way at the center. watching and dreaming. shouting from a corner. in the shadow. i wrote from that misunderstood place and i still do.
on this anniversary that feels so sacred i have realized something: it wasn’t only a strange desire to write these songs, there was something unknown to me happening. i was looking for you: my people. i hadn’t been honest enough in my life and as result i let the wrong ones in. the only path was to tell the story comically unfiltered. my great loss, transcendent anxiety, and an unearned hope that would remain the thread in my writing to this day. it was more than a strange desire to make this album, it was a stranger desired.
so here it is. the first bleachers album with me and the band knowing what we know now. all eleven tracks reimagined without the armor i needed at the time, a different kind now. reimagined after that stranger has become the great rock of my life and the band’s. knowing how that chapter ends, feeling so sorry for myself then, as well as inspired by that person who laid it all down for something better. i’d do it again.
in search of myself and my people. a stranger desired.”
– Jack Antonoff
Bleachers’ Strange Desire just celebrated its tenth anniversary earlier this week on July 14, and marked Antonoff’s breakthrough in the music scene following his earlier works with bands like fun. and Steel Train. The record spawned the hit singles “Rollercoaster,” “I Wanna Get Better,” and “Wake Me.” The record was followed by 2017’s Gone Now.
Just recently, the band released their eponymous fourth album Bleachers earlier this March via Dirty Hit and Shadow Of The City Records. Talking to Billboard Philippines about the record, Antonoff described it as a “new chapter” for the band, explaining how the entire album came naturally to him at this specific point and time of his life. They also dropped a special deluxe version of Bleachers, with eight new bonus tracks added to the record.
As we anticipate the re-recorded A Stranger Desired, listen to the deluxe edition of Bleachers’ self-titled album below: