New York City-based band Imaginary People is excited to announce its new album Alibi out September 12. Today the band is excited to share their new single “State Trooper,” a reimagined version of Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska classic single. 

Of the song, the band’s Dylan Von Wagner says:
“I always loved the album Nebraska and I was warming up with ‘State Trooper’ one day in rehearsal and a riff came out of nowhere and we latched onto it. We then realized we could create this song from its raw acoustic sketch to an arrangement that fit our interpretation of the lyrics. It was a good accident to have and I’m sure Bruce will approve.” 

Alibi, Imaginary People’s third full-length album, is a haunting, cinematic reflection of a culture unraveling. Recorded with producer Phil Weinrobe (Nick Murphy, Pussy Riot, Stolen Jars) at Rivington 66 in New York City and Spillway Sound in the Catskills, and mixed by Eli Crews at Brooklyn’s Figure 8, the album captures the chaos and emotional fallout of a world slipping into disarray.  Written during what frontman Dylan Von Wagner calls a “cultural civil war,” the record channels the disorientation and emotional toll of a world where norms no longer apply.“

I just think we’re in an ultimate fight right now,” explains the singer. “Our culture is just falling apart and the ins and outs of our cultural differences are splitting – it feels like what one person says is right and what the other person says is wrong and that’s it. The whole time we were doing the record, it just felt like normalcy was falling apart. The things you’d think would normally be right and wrong – the normal yesses and nos – aren’t happening anymore, and that was very disturbing to me.”

Von Wagner’s trembling vocals on tracks like “It’s Simple” – written moments after the Stoneman Douglas shooting – capture a profound personal and societal unease. “Bronx Girl” offers fragile romanticism, while “Neon Age” critiques curated digital personas. Lead single “Hometown” mourns the loss of identity to suburban sprawl and capitalism’s flattening touch.

The album features a haunting reimagining of Springsteen’s “State Trooper,” fitting seamlessly into the album’s moody, disillusioned landscape. Yet amid the darkness, there are glimmers of light – and a sense of strange, stubborn hope. 

With a sound that fuses post-punk, noir-pop, and a brooding theatricality, Imaginary People – completed by Mark Roth (guitar), Justin Repasky (keys), Kolby Wade (drums), and Bryan Percivall (bass/synth), with synth contributions by Grant Zubritsky – have carved out a world of their own.  While there are glimpses of light throughout the darkness that permeates every aspect of Alibi – one that captures the nature of what humanity has become – and while its songs do reflect the harsh, bleak reality of being alive – and of the coldness and meanness of the big city, especially when the world feels like it’s collapsing – it also manages to exist on its own, and on its own terms.

“Imaginary People are just in our own little world,” says Von Wagner. “I don’t think we really participate. I mean we live in New York and it was made here, but we just keep to ourselves. I don’t know where this stuff comes from or why I feel this way and write this shit. I feel like it’s a weird addiction that I can’t shake, and I don’t think any psychoanalysis is going to shed light on it.”

Welcome, then, to the world of Alibi. It’s a cold, dark, lonely place, but so is the world. Stick around long enough, however, and the light might just start to shine through.