Kevin Bronson on April 24th, 2020

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“Angel Miners & the Lightning Riders,” the fourth full-length from AWOLNATION, leaves no stylistic stone unturned. Everything in the fertile brain of mastermind Aaron Bruno seems to turn up — from stadium-ready pop to doomish rock to trumpets and strings to guest appearances by Rivers Cuomo of Weezer and Alex Ebert of Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros. AWOLNATION remains almost Queen-like in turning its alt-whatever into pure spectacle, not to mention thumbing its nose at genre constraints.

Led the by single “Best” (which fostered a second version featuring Alice Merton), the album rose from the ashes of 2018’s Woolsey Fire, which destroyed songwriter Bruno’s home and studio. He speaks to the cold reality of losing everything in the song “California Halo Blue”: “Now I can see the devil’s hold on this world,” Bruno sings as he tells of packing the car, rounding up the dogs, grabbing his journals and making his escape. “Remember, remember the ninth of November.”

If that track shatters the image of a California as idyllic, so does “Pacific Coast Highway in the Movies,” which features the Cuomo cameo. The Weezer frontman appears in the video, too — as a cartoon. The video, directed by Ravi Dhar and animated by Lessa Millett, “depicts cartoonish L.A. beach life, literally,” Bruno says. “The promise of Pacific Coast Highway is a glamorous and beautiful open road, but in reality it’s more of a slow moving traffic jam. It’s showing when fantasy meets real life.”

With the band’s touring plans on hold, Bruno has been doing interviews with various artists on Instagram. The band is also joining in Live Nation’s effort to financially assist affected tour employees by contributing a chunk of merch proceeds to the #CrewNation Fund.

||| Watch: The video for “Pacific Coast Highway in the Movies” (feat. Rivers Cuomo)

||| Also: Stream “Angel Miners & the Lightning Riders” in full