Family Force 5 will release Time Stands Still, its first studio album in three years, Aug. 5 through Word Entertainment.
The 15-song project also begins a different era for the Atlanta band. Former drummer Jacob “Crouton” Olds has moved behind the microphone as lead vocalist following the departure of his brother Solomon “Soul Glow Activatur” Olds from the touring lineup.
Solomon stepped away in 2013 to spend more time with his family and pursue other creative work, though he remained involved in songwriting for the band. Teddy “Hollywood” Boldt subsequently joined as drummer, allowing Crouton to move out from behind the kit and into a role that requires considerably more running around.
The first look at that lineup comes through “BZRK,” a hyperactive dance-rock track featuring KB. Its newly released music video contains exercise equipment, aggressive choreography, bright tracksuits and enough visual activity to make the abbreviated spelling feel like a practical decision.
“BZRK” became available as an immediate download with digital preorders of Time Stands Still. The video was released May 23 and quickly passed 200,000 views.
Riley Friesen and Seth Mosley produced the album, which continues Family Force 5’s habit of treating genre boundaries more like mildly inconvenient suggestions. The tracklist moves among electronic dance music, pop, rock, funk and hip-hop, with titles including “Sweep the Leg,” “Glow in the Dark,” “Jet Pack Kicks” and “Everybody Lose Your Mind.”
KB is not the album’s only guest. Melodie Wagner of Hillsong Young & Free appears on “Walk on Water.”
The album’s lead radio single, “Let It Be Love,” takes a different approach from the controlled chaos of “BZRK.” Guitarist Derek “Chap Stique” Mount said the song was inspired partly by comments Switchfoot frontman Jon Foreman made while addressing disagreement and protesters outside a concert.
“He encouraged them to remember there was something deeper than disagreement, and there is beauty in connection, in common ground,” Mount said. “He also said we have one card to play, and that card is love.”
That sentiment became the foundation for “Let It Be Love,” which argues that grace is a stronger response than defensiveness when beliefs and personalities collide.
For a band known for crunk-rock breakdowns, dance instructions and occasionally dressing like escaped youth-group mascots, the message is unusually direct. Then again, Family Force 5 has always been more deliberate than the party initially suggests.
Time Stands Still follows 2011’s III and its 2012 remix companion, III.V. It is Family Force 5’s first full-length record built around Crouton’s lead vocals and an opportunity to determine how much of the band’s identity can change without losing the wonderfully unruly thing underneath it.
Watch the video for “BZRK” below.
Time Stands Still Tracklist
- Sweep the Leg
- BZRK featuring KB
- Show Love
- Time Stands Still
- Walk on Water featuring Melodie Wagner
- Glow in the Dark
- Raised by Wolves
- Jet Pack Kicks
- XRAY
- Let It Be Love
- Everybody Lose Your Mind
- Dance Like Nobody’s Watching
- When Everything’s Changing
- Never Say Never
- This Is My Year