Again For The Win recently announced that their highly anticipated album We've Been Here Forever will be released by Deep Elm Records.

We're very pleased to officially announce that we've signed with Deep Elm Records for all digital distribution. We'll be joining bands like The Appleseed Cast, Moving Mountains, Moonlit Sailor, Goonies Never Say Die, The Cast Before The Break, Dorena, and more. Check 'em out HERE.

That said, We've Been Here Forever will be released online August 15th, 2012 by Deep Elm. Our debut, Bonus Deluxe Version, will also be re-released that same day (it's being temporarily taken down from the internet in the meantime; we apologize for any inconvenience that incurs). Physical formats of both albums will be available via Posters On Walls Records.

Since writing my earlier review of the album, a number of things have happened. I traveled through Greece, Italy, France, and Belgium with We've Been Here Forever nearly constantly playing on my ipod. I purchased quality headphones. The first album I listened to with these new headphones - you guessed it - We've Been Here Forever. I had no idea what I was missing out on before.

Once we admitted to ourselves that we were writing a record with very heavy personal themes, we chose to embrace it.

In terms of artistic growth and songwriting, I now mention this record as being akin to Weezer's Pinkerton. It's dark, it's personal, it rocks hard, and I can't stop listening to it. Quoted on the Deep Elm page for the album, Carter Francis goes into the band's writing process and how they came out of the studio with such an incredibly personal record, saying, "We felt a few different turning points while writing this album. Everyone in the band lost close family members as well as close friends during the twelve months we were writing and recording. It truly shaped our entire creative process. But once we wrote Merkabah, the entire album started coming together quickly and everything seemed to fall into place. Once we admitted to ourselves that we were writing a record with very heavy personal themes, we chose to embrace it."

The Lines Above Our Heads remains my favorite song because it represents coming to terms with everything that happens in life, good or bad. In Stephen King's classic novel, The Stand, the main characters go through difficult situation after difficult situation, drawn from one crisis to the next, until the climax of the book, a showdown between good and evil. Unlike a Disney fairey tale ending (or The Avengers), the climax of the novel doesn't exactly end magically happy for all the characters. However, the main characters recognize and take the the path they want to and need to be on. In The Lines Above Our Heads, Carter Francis sings, "Go where you want to be, I am where I need to be." This bold statement is one that reflects and reveres the past but proclaims that the future is for pioneers that push forward. We've Been Here Forever is Again For The Win's second full length album and does just that.