We haven’t heard new music from Australian jangle-pop group Vacations since 2020’s Forever in Bloom LP, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t been busy. In the interim, after some pandemic-necessitated downtime, the four-piece got back on the road and sold out their first US tour. Now, they’re getting set to embark on a UK tour which has also just sold out. With the demand for their music at its highest since forming nearly a decade ago, now may be an ideal moment for them to release a new track.
“Next Exit” is just that. The single was ideated by frontman Campbell Burns at a recording studio in Austin during the band’s most recent US tour, and a few months later everything clicked into place. Over infectiously clanging guitars and pattering drums, Burns sings of busting out of the type of dead-end routine many of us experienced deep in the pandemic. “It takes on the idea of being stuck in a loop of repetitive behavior,” he elaborates. “Feeling stagnant and unsure of the future ahead. You could easily draw this to us as a band navigating COVID, or on a more personal level with relationships between friends or romantic partners. I always like the idea of multiple interpretations. You can have your own meaning, and I can have mine. Together, we still connect over the music.”
The track arrives with a music video illustrating this concept, with Burns looking dead-eyed as he goes about the motions of making coffee, brushing his teeth, and watering plants on repeat, seemingly capturing the frustrations of being unable to tour. “Making the video was like getting this massive weight off my chest,” notes the band’s Jake Johnson, who wrote and served as creative director on the video directed by Nicole Lipp. “There were a lot of strong feelings that needed to come out after the last several years… It was a really wonderful, cathartic experience, and the filming was unlike anything we've ever attempted before.”
Check it out below.
