The long wait for the release of The Rifles’ new album ‘Love Your Neighbour’ is almost over, and the band today share one more joyous taste of what to expect as they share their new single ‘All Aboard’.
The song opens with the rallying cry ‘All Aboard’ and when The Rifles sound this infectiously positive, joining their gang feels irresistible. The band’s uplifting, jangly indie-pop feels as blissfully good-natured as enjoying beers with your friends in the mid-summer sun. Meanwhile, its message shares a similar positivity. The world faces numerous problems and every talking point is divisive – and the one thing we can change is to come together.
Joel Stoker says, “The song is basically about the ever-changing world that we live in, but does it always change for the better? It feels like there are lots of things we get wrong, but sometimes maybe there’s too many of us waiting to jump down people’s throats the second that mistakes are made. Everyone is on this ride together yet sometimes it feels very fragmented. And also it’s wrapped up in a catchy little tune.”
As its title suggests, the ‘Love Your Neighbour’ album celebrates the power of the local community, urging people to come together as one as well as sharing the stories that make a neighbourhood what it is. Those traits have gleamed like a beacon throughout the album’s previous singles, commemorating the unique characters that bring positivity to their hometown (‘Mr. Sunflower’), nostalgia for our past that helps make us who we are in the present (‘Days of our Lives’), and how seemingly endless family commitments can make life feel overwhelming… but actually also make everything worthwhile (the title track).
The inspiration behind the album comes, in part, from The Rifles’ personal circumstances. While the band have been consistently busy with sold-out shows, festivals, live albums and reissues it’s been eight years since the release of their previous studio album, ‘Big Life’. Between balancing the schedules of their five members and working around their individual lives outside of the band, actually finding the time to reconvene to write and record a new album proved to be a logistical challenge.
But when they reconvened at Joel’s home studio in Walthamstow, east London, they realised how much they had missed the creativity and the camaraderie that comes with being in a band. It’s also an environment that allowed complete freedom to work as their schedules allowed – join the fun whenever a free day or a moment of inspiration arrived. And those are factors which give the album both a rush of energy and an engaging, carefree attitude.
‘Love Your Neighbour’ is available to pre-order HERE. The band’s official store has just launched a new vinyl format that features alternate artwork and is packaged with a signed poster – it is limited to just 250 copies.
The Rifles will commemorate the release of ‘Love Your Neighbour’ by playing a special launch show at Signature Brew’s brewery on Blackhorse Road on July 5th, which also features the first pours of their new collaboration lager ‘Out For The Weekend’. Final tickets are still availableHERE. They will then embark upon a record store tour, with select shows following later in the summer. Their upcoming gigs are:
JULY
5th – London, Signature Brew – Blackhorse Road
6th – Gosport, A Slice of Vinyl
7th – Brighton, Resident
9th – Manchester, The Met at Derby Hall – hosted by Wax and Beans
10th – London, Rough Trade East
AUGUST
31st – Sheffield, Don Valley Bowl, Rock ‘n’ Roll Circus (with Milburn)
SEPTEMBER
7th – Stockton, KU (rearranged headline show)
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