Anything worth doing is worth doing well, and if you’ve done it well at least three or four times, it’s probably worth getting yourself a theme song. Now onto their second full-length album, Partner have leaned heavily into their post-classic rock vibe and reaffirmed it with a theme song of their own, the hardy “Hello and Welcome”.
The single is one of two to be released as part of the official announcement of Never Give Up, the band’s first full-length album since their 2017 release of In Search of Lost Time. Ditching the nineties’ alt-rock sound, Partner seems to have veered further into some territory that should already be familiar to fans of their live shows. The band has made some particularly big nods to Canadian prog-rock legends Rush, as Partner continues to reinvent themselves in their hard rock image.
The duo reassures us that they’ve still retained all the hallmarks that fan will be familiar with: guitar solos and humorous subject matter abound but the band says that their new song will be “more structurally adventurous” and the lyrics more “abstract.”
Partner’s animated new introductory video comes complete with a bunch of Canadiana, references to KISS, Rush, Van Halen, ALF and about 10% more funk in the bassline than we’re used to hearing.
Never Give Up wasn’t the easiest album to write apparently. The band says that more than once certain songs needed to be torn apart and put make together.
“In October of 2018 we found ourselves in a dark and quiet rehearsal space. We were practicing for a two-person show, the first one we had played in many years. We were at a crossroads as a band, and we had no idea what the future held. All we knew was that we were going to be making music together. We weren’t sure what this music would sound like or who would be playing it with us. And then the songs started to arrive. Some of them fully formed, like the first songs we wrote. It was as much a surprise to us as anyone else when we realized we had the beginnings of our second album,” says the band about the process.
“We talked. We were honest with each other and honest with ourselves. Sometimes it was a lot. And when it got to be almost too much we would repeat to each other, first as a joke and then not as a joke at all, ‘never give up’.”
Having endured a difficult songwriting process, it’s not surprising that Partner produced the self-affirming mantra of the album’s second single, “Rock is My Rock.”
Never Give Up is set to be released on November 20, 2020, via You’ve Changed Records.