Finding Home in Townie by X Ambassadors
Written by: Lyra Wilson
If you’re like me and went to high school during the 2010s, you most likely spent your summers listening to the lyrics “I’m a little unsteady” on the radio. Or if not for Obama popularizing the word "renegade" during that time, X Ambassadors' platinum song most likely introduced you to the word. I remember that time like it was yesterday. As we reminisce about the past, X Ambassadors do the same with their most recent album, “Townie”.
In “Townie” comes a collection of songs that encapsulate what it means to reminisce about where you came from. Whether you fondly cherish your hometown or are eager to leave it, this album pulls on different perspectives of nostalgia, largely based on the group’s beginnings in Ithaca, New York. I had the lovely opportunity to talk with the group during their press conference, where they highlighted their songwriting process. I’m always fascinated by how musicians use their abilities to connect audiences with their songs.
This album covers new ground in many ways. Lead singer and songwriter, Sam Harris, said everything from covering more in-depth topics to the songwriting process was new territory for their fourth album. On their previous albums, the band’s writing process was usually a bit scattered. Sam would usually be by himself, and the other band members would be writing on their own and then come together in the end. However, this album became like a family by uniting the group during quarantine. In a cabin in the woods, nothing scary went on, but wonderful food provided by their guitarist and creative energy helped establish what the album would become.
“We had never done a record that felt like a destination record. I felt that we all needed to be in upstate New York for this. A lot of it was done live and it immediately took us back to the early days when we were just four guys in the room ‘creating noise’.”
My favorite thing to see from artists is how much joy they get when creating a new album, especially one that connects to their lives. I saw that joy radiate from the band as they were asked a lot of fantastic questions by other journalists. They discussed a lot of key components that made the subject matter come to life as well, such as their album cover. The key to what you’re about to embrace all stems from the cover art. With talks about their home, the art actually includes their mom’s house. Sam said it wasn’t actually the house Sam and his brother Casey grew up in, but features the gas station which is a symbolic landmark of where they’d hang out in Ithaca.
Sam might call upstate New York a “drive-through” state, but you don’t want to speed past the chance to miss their latest album “Townie”. Check out some of Next Wave’s most recent reviews to learn more about this nostalgic and heartfelt album.
Our coverage of the X Ambassadors tour here:
