The Districts return with their biggest, boldest and most naturally pop album. It’s upbeat and has a real XTC mid period edge. It’s a bundle of fun and a real surprise. This record is a new era. The desire to create something larger than yourself, that will infiltrate people’s hearts like well oiled machines, to paint pictures that will shake them and create a resounding push forward towards something more. In our pandemic isolation, what we wanted was to play a loud collage of music, unconfined by preconceived notions of what it should be, and to transcend ourselves in a room full of breathing, screaming, vibrating human beings – to let the darkness out in a cathartic squeal of noise, eclipsing it with light.
We wanted to feel it all at once with you and to escape this fucked up world and find our way into a better one together.
Rob Gore (frontman): “The thing I value most in music is when an album expresses some sort of pain or frustration, or hope that I also feel. I hope this album makes people feel like something within themselves is reflected in the wider world, and I hope that makes them feel less alone.”
“Great American Painting’ is a record that is strongest for its instrumentation, featuring The Districts’ typical cross-streams of guitars that amply lamenting vocals, intriguing listeners by making reference to social issues within America. The Districts paint a “Great American Painting” that taps its toes in the pool of social justice without feeling overbearing or holding the holier-than-thou attitude we’ve come to know of some rock bands’ reinventions.” .
I really love this band and have followed their progress since the beginning. They proved over and over again that they can write sonic anthems with big sentiments and big guitar-driven orchestration, and they do it again here. With a more refined sound now – think maybe Band Of Horses – they’ve constructed several tunes where riffs, hooks and licks fall into place like pieces of a puzzle.
The Fat Angel Sings 