Photo by Crackerfarm

The Avett Brothers have announced a new studio record, The Third Gleam, the third installment in their ongoing Gleam series. The record will be released on Aug. 28.

The band also shared a video discussing the timing of the record. According to a press release, “Seth and Scott express that while The Third Gleam was recorded ahead of the pandemic and social reform movements that have swept the nation, the new music captures their personal experiences and perspectives on themes that are undeniably universal and timely.”

“The Third Gleam was finished before a virus and its carnage swept through humankind in the spring of 2020,” said Scott and Seth in the video. “It was finished before the most recent injustices against black lives inspired outrage and a much-needed call for social reform and revolution. Through the fever pitch of fear over the pandemic, outcry in the wake of widely observable bigotry, and mourning over the death caused by both, we are united in conflict…put to task in the arenas of our fortitude, our morality, indeed the strength of our own souls, individually and collectively. It is a time of heightened experience; heightened response; heightened resolve. If you are reading or hearing this statement now, you are a part of it.

“And yet, neither of these massive fundamental concerns are entirely new to us,” the video continues. “Sickness…in body and in mind are old news for our species, and in truth have found us susceptible throughout our complex history. And so our plagues, biological, behavioral and systemic, are intrinsically a part of us. We navigate them poorly at times and heroically at others.

“To the point of this writing, as it pertains to the announcement of a record release, it barely warrants mentioning that an 8-song collection is a whisper of an offering in a time of blaring considerations,” Seth concludes. “As I mentioned before, Scott and I finished this album just before these two fundamental concerns overtook nearly the entire planet. Consequently, as the timeline goes, the songs were not informed specifically by the urgent and pivotal concepts which are now center stage. However, as these factors have been and will remain a part of us as a whole, independent of a specific moment in history, the songs of this particular piece do connect somehow to this particular time.”

The Third Gleam is The Avett Brothers’ 11th studio effort. Watch the brothers’ video below. For more information, head to theavettbrothers.com.

Read Relix’ recent feature on The Avett Brothers here: The Avett Brothers: We Americans