I would guess that Ways & Means, the forthcoming album from the New Orleans–based ensemble The Deslondes, wasn’t a part of their five-year plan back in 2017. While the success of their LP Hurry Home from that year invited anticipation for its follow-up, Ways & Means was largely shaped—as much of the musical output of the past two years has been—by the cabin fever brought on musicians in the wake of a global pandemic essentially putting them out of work indefinitely.
And yet “five-year plan” is the precise theme of the second single from this new record, a forward-looking, upbeat ballad about becoming a better man in the future. Marking a noticeable shift in the band’s sound—which was always rooted in the history of folk—the track is a personal statement from vocalist Sam Doores.
“It was lockdown,” he recalls, “I was depressed and unemployed, all tours canceled. Passively coping with alcohol among other distractions. I guess I wasn’t in the right headspace for timeless and poetic...so I just wrote exactly what I was thinking, moving through, and working toward that day. Instead of fighting against my A.D.D., I just let it do the writing...zooming in and out, focusing on anything from my banal and mundane tasks and impulses to the ‘how the hell are we gonna fix this world and what do I really have to offer?’ part of my consciousness. That’s generally how my thoughts come and go, so I decided to string them all together.”
In the spirit of uninterrupted thought, the Joshua Shoemaker–directed visual for the track is a single continuous take, following Doores around a cathartic post-pandemic gathering of friends. “[Joshua] had this wild idea of a single shot medley of music videos. Three of them. ‘Five Year Plan’ was the middle song, and I got to be in my PJs, surrounded by friends, candy and a piano...so yeah...in my happy place.”
Watch it below, and pre-order the album—which is out July 8 via New West Records, and which features Margo Price and Twain among other guests—here.
