Kyle Adem’s upcoming album, armour., is a coming of age story. In these nine tracks, Adem explores all the attendant tumult of reaching a new stage of life with a voice reminiscent of Conor Oberst, sumptuous arrangements with unusual instruments, and a combination of confessional lyrics and punk fierceness. But unlike your average coming of age tale, armour. comes to the conclusion that uncertainty is the only sure thing. The album will be released on Ghost Motel Records on Jul. 24.
“This is a piece of work that pushes the listener hard into the baptismal waters and holds them underneath until the very end with the humble request to get up out of the water and lower their defenses because everyone here drinks from the same cup: uncertainty,” says Adem of armour. It’s no surprise that the songwriter uses religious imagery — much of the material for the album was inspired by his struggle with, and eventual break from religion. “armour. deals a lot with human existence: love, hope, and suffering specifically. It catalogues a journey of mine through a few different religions in a pretty desperate search for meaning,” Adem explains. “At some point, I came to a haphazard conclusion: nobody knows, and that is beautiful.”
