Never Give Up, the new album from indie duo Partner, is the result of, well, never giving up. The process of writing this LP was not too easy this time around; it took a lot of patience and communication in order to come together. “We were at a crossroads as a band, and we had no idea what the future held,” the band shared in a press release. “All we knew was that we were going to be making music together.”
This persistence helped create an honest, vulnerable record that follows 2017’s idiosyncratic In Search of Lost Time. The vibrant personality is carried over into Never Give Up, but it balances with more colossal ideas. For FLOOD, the two broke down each song on the album, which includes themes of love and the cosmos, as well as the influence of Rush.
This song is a greeting to fans old and new, welcoming them to our new release and giving them a taste of what’s to come. We had fun putting this one together and playing in a bunch of different tempos and styles.
2. “Rock Is My Rock”
We wrote this song because we were inspired by how much rock means to people, including us. We have met so many people at our shows who are incredibly dedicated to rock, and we were moved by how much strength it seems to give them.
3. “The Pit”
This song is about the depths of despair and the things we throw down there to bargain with the devil. We built this whole song off the guitar riff that you hear in the outro.
4. “Honey”
This song is about Josee’s main guitar, a Les Paul Goldtop with a Bigsby. It arrived (sans Bigsby) as a surprise from her dad with a note attached, and soon after we wrote this song about it.
5. “Big Gay Hands”
We wrote this one when we were on the road, feeling the loneliness of the road. The whole song came to us pretty fully formed as soon as we had the chorus and we had been playing it live for years by the time we recorded it.
6. “Good Place to Hide (At the Time)”
Last year we covered “Limelight” by Rush, and practicing and learning that had a huge influence on our writing process for this song, which is about being young and having to play a role that doesn’t fit but feels safer than the truth. It’s one of our more serious songs, and the breakdown is super fun to play.
7. “Roller Coasters (Life Is One)”
This song is about life’s incessant stream of events, both chaotic and sublime. We assembled this song over the course of about a year and it was a frustrating but rewarding process when it was finally done.
8. “Couldn’t Forget”
This song is a love song. We didn’t record this one to a click, so the vocals were needlessly difficult to record.
9. “Here I Am World”
In the song we scream our cosmic questions into the void. For some reason lots of people have said this song reminded them of the Arthur theme song.
10. “Crocodiles”
This was the first song we started on the album and the last song we finished. It encapsulates our journey from our first album until now.
