Welcome to the ’20s: Ward lays claim to releasing the first album of the new decade

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Ward at Echo Park Rising 2019 (Photo by S.Lo)

Somebody had to have firsties.

L.A. rockers Ward, the quartet helmed by Christopher Ward, have laid claim to releasing the first album of the decade. In an announcement this morning, the band said that “Bring Me Low,” was released “on Jan 1, 2020, at 12:00AM (UTC+14:00), and it is officially the first album released on Earth this decade.”

There’s a catch, though: It is a limited release. Not yet available on streaming services, the album is available to those who sign up for the quartet’s fan club. (We jumped through the hoops, just to ascertain whether there was an album at the end of the rainbow, and, yes, it exists.)

The band is comprised of singer-guitarist Ward, drummer Ryan Dietzenbach, bassist Chris Gongora and guitarist Mauricio Munguia. The nine-track album, which includes a handful of B-sides, deals in varying degrees of directness with mental illness and depression — in particular as they affect musicians. Ward has vowed to donate all the proceeds from the album to the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

The album includes the single “Swimming,” released in October, which is exemplary of Ward’s brand of muscular rock. Check it out below.

||| Stream: “Swimming”

||| Previously: “Sober,” “Stand Me,” “Crush”