Ride Releases New Track 'Monaco' Ahead of Album 'Interplay'

Shoegaze is currently having a moment on TikTok, and Ride is more than happy to show the kids how it's done.

The legendary '90s shoegaze pioneers are returning at the end of the month with Interplay, the follow-up to their 2019 album This Is Not a Safe Place. They've already shared already early singles "Peace Sign" and "Last Frontier," and today, they're back with an urgent, synth-streaked new song called "Monaco."

"The backing track came from the earlier Ox4 Sound sessions we did and we gave it a demo name of 'Monaco' as we were naming these jams and ideas we were pulling together as place names," Mark Gardener, who serves as co-frontman alongside fellow vocalist and guitarist Andy Bell, explained in a statement.

"One evening, during the recording sessions at Ox4 Sound, the guys had all left the building and I was there with just producer Richie Kennedy and an engineer," he continued. "I had been writing some words about how I was feeling that everybody was being smashed in the current economic climate with the rise of energy bills and all else; to the point that it just seems now that we're having to live to work instead of working to live."

"The song is a reflection on this feeling of how we're all being smashed to pieces and under pressure constantly financially. It's a kind of call to arms against this whilst we still have strength to fight against it. 'Monaco' then stayed as the ironic title as the song is totally against the madness of the few who live in their artificial, detached rich bubbles in Monaco."

Interplay is the band's seventh studio album and third since reuniting in 2014, which means that their current incarnation has now officially lasted longer than their original run from 1988 to 1996.

"This album has taken a long time to make, and has seen the band go through a lot of ups and downs; maybe the most of any Ride album," Bell shared upon the initial announcement in January. "But it has seen us come through the process as a band in a good place, feeling able to shake off the past, and ready to celebrate the combined musical talents that brought us together in the first place."

According to a press release, the album was inspired in part by '80s pop acts like Tears For Fears, Talk Talk, and early U2.

Interplay Tracklist:

1. Peace Sign

2. Last Frontier

3. Light in a Quiet Room

4. Monaco

5. I Came to See the Wreck

6. Stay Free

7. Last Night I Came Somewhere to Dream

8. Sunrise Chaser

9. Midnight Rider

10. Portland Rocks

11. Essaouira

12. Yesterday is Just a Song

Interplay is out March 29 via Wichita Recordings/PIAS. You can pre-order it here.

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Ride, a four-piece band rounded out by drummer Laurence "Loz" Colbert and bassist Steve Queralt, will head out on a tour of the UK and Ireland starting in September.