Not long before the making of their new album Ooh La La, Guster celebrated three decades together as a band—a journey that’s included landing a series of hits on the Billboard charts, working with luminaries like Steve Lillywhite and Richard Swift, launching their own music festival, and amassing an ardent fanbase partly on the strength of their relentless touring and deeply communal live show. But despite reaching a milestone few musical acts ever come close to attaining,
Guster’s ninth studio LP reveals a band fully in touch with the voracious creative energy that first inspired their formation. A major leap forward for lead vocalist Ryan Miller, guitarist Adam Gardner, drummer Brian Rosenworcel, and multi-instrumentalist Luke Reynolds, Ooh La La ultimately matches that wide-eyed spirit with a newly heightened sense of confidence, conviction, and commitment to the raw sincerity that’s made them so beloved. “In all the time we’ve been together we’ve never really felt our age as a band—we’re still so hungry, still excited to create,” says Gardner. “A lot of people have told us they’re amazed at how democratic our process is, but I think that’s a big part of why we’re still able to open up this space where the ideas just flow. It also helps that we’ve built a relationship with our fans where there’s a real sense of trust and a desire for us to keep growing and keep pushing ourselves. It’s such a gift that allows us to be truly free, and to make whatever music we want to make.”
The follow-up to 2019’s Look Alive, Ooh La La marks a bold departure from its predecessor—a sonically adventurous and electronic-leaning effort made with producer Leo Abrahams (Brian Eno, Regina Spektor). This time around, the band worked mainly with producer Josh Kaufman (The National, The Hold Steady, Bonny Light Horseman), holing up at Isokon Studio in Woodstock and carving out a lush and expansive sound rich in acoustic guitars and graceful piano work. With additional production from Ron Aniello (Bruce Springsteen) and Rich Costey (Death Cab for Cutie, Of Monsters and Men), Ooh La La endlessly radiates an undeniable warmth, even as its songs delve into the more daunting aspects of living in modern times.
Ooh La La takes its title from a lyric in lead single “Keep Going”—a lovely encapsulation of the album’s emotional undercurrent, telegraphing an irrepressible joy in the face of turmoil and unrest. “Most of these songs were written against the backdrop of what felt like an apocalypse,” says Miller. “It was such a transformative time, and we were dealing with a lot of existential questions about what it means to be a father, a husband, a creative person in the midst of all the chaos.”
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