Mister Goblin – the solo project of Sam Goblin (formerly of Two Inch Astronaut) is set to release his latest album, Four People In An Elevator And One Of Them Is The Devil (Exploding In Sound Records), dropping on February 19th. Today he shares the album’s first single, “Six Flags America,” a beautiful song about the disappointment of a canceled trip to Maryland’s finest Six Flags. Mister Goblin is joined by frequent collaborators Sadie Dupuis (Speedy Ortiz, Sad13),  Matt  Gatwood  (Two Inch Astronaut), and Seth Engel (Options), whose individual contributions really take the composition to the next level.

Mister Goblin’s latest release, Four People In An Elevator and One Of Them Is The Devil, is an album that Sam Goblin describes as being both “absurd” and his first concept album. He points out that it is “probably no coincidence that these things are co-occurring.” Building upon the emotional range of his music as Mister Goblin (and with Two Inch Astronaut before that), Four People… is another fine example of his impactful and melodic songwriting, with an added confidence that allows him to get progressively goofier without care. That deepened sense of humor lays roots, but there’s an unshaken intimacy and vulnerability that are never far behind. Mister Goblin is not concerned with keeping up with the times or a unified stylistic approach, as he instead turns to focus toward the 2010 movie “Devil,” a film that Sam Goblin says is “not an amazing movie, but I think it’s an interesting jumping-off point for conversations about culpability, blame, ideas of good and evil, and just morality in general.”

With two Mister Goblin releases already out in the world, the hurdles of writing for a solo project rather than his former band have become less significant. Four People… captures Mister Goblin with a heightened confidence in mapping out the majority of the instrumentation on his own. The songs were demoed and sent to the album’s producer Seth Engel (Options), who learned the drum parts and added his own embellishments. The two recorded the record over the span of a week at Engel’s own Pallet Sound in Chicago. “When we had the basic tracking done, I sent a couple tracks out to Matt Gatwood to add some piano and cello layering, Mike Siegel to do some standup bass, and Sadie Dupuis to add some harmonies. Their parts were entirely their ideas,” shared Goblin.