On Friday, February 10, HOOGENBOOM, aka singer and songwriter Brandon Hoogenboom, will share his debut album for Good For Nothing (A Spiraling Blackout Montage) via Rose Garden (Runnner, Monster Rally). Don’t let the name fool you: Good For Nothing (A Spiraling Blackout Montage) is a resplendent collection of bold, beatific melodies cut with Brandon’s deeply felt, introspective songwriting.“A lot of emotion went into these songs,” he says while talking about what the album means to him. 

As a final preview before the album’s release, today, HOOGENBOOM shared “Shame On Us.” The darkly shaded swoons on the track provide perfect accompaniment to Brandon’s biting satirical exploration of blame in the internet age. In the end, it’s a song about the contradictions that make us human; as Brandon puts it, “I hope that we get better at seeing the gray area, the good, the bad and the in between in order to find some common ground.”

The soaring melodies and warm instrumentation as heard in today’s single, as well as previous teaser tracks “Damn Good,” “The Violinist (Penalized & Paralyzed),” and “Skipping Town,” are undercut with Brandon’s reflective lyricism, which finds him ruminating on a dark period in his life that the album title gestures towards. “I had a tendency to take things too far in an attempt to cope with what felt like the breakup of a tight-knit family,” he explains while discussing the title’s meaning. “A lot of this album is me taking the time to address my issues inside and outside of the band, and it’s taken a decade for me to really understand that period of my life and be able to move on. This is me learning how much I need to take the reins of my own life and my own story.”

Throughout Good For Nothing, Brandon zooms in on the highs and lows of friendships and relationships in general, unafraid to explore life’s uncomfortable corners. Indeed, the album is the result of Brandon putting his honest self forward artistically and personally, all the while exercising his muscle for writing gorgeous, full-bodied songs that sound both timeless and immediate. He says, “This is the first collection of recorded music that I’m really proud of, and it feels like it’s just the beginning—but every day I’m pushing myself and my art forward, too.” These nine songs find Brandon looking at his journeys as a musician and a human being on this rock we call Earth, and they happen to chart an exciting future for HOOGENBOOM as a whole, too.

Photo Courtesy: Billy Yarbrough