Big Stir Records would like to be perfectly clear: SHPLANG will be “Understood.” The veteran LA psych-pop-rock band returns with a brand new single by that title, out Friday, November 3 and serving notice of a forthcoming album – their first since the 2019 career-summarizing anthology LOS GRANDES EXCRITOS – due before the year's end.

There have been rumblings in recent weeks of SHPLANG's return with new material, particularly with the appearance of an all-new track on BSR's Halloween collection STIR THE CAULDRON, but “Understood” represents the first standalone preview of the forthcoming album. It's a good sign indeed, an instant toe-tapper with one of main man Peter Marston's characteristically appealing melodies and the surprise inclusion of a full horn section pushing the beat along. It's also a rare positive message for today's world, as Marston explains, quoting British novelist Winifred Holtby: “The crown of life is not happiness; it is understanding.” Marston continues: “When I came across this quote, I thought it really captured the triumphal nature of the song. I don’t know if there is any higher currency in a relationship than to be understood!” The listener can sense the sheer joy in that simple feeling on the track: it's both positively invigorating and invigoratingly positive.

The wonderful horn arrangement that puts the song over the top occurred almost by accident, according to Marston. “This song features Lee Thornburg on trumpet, flugelhorn, and trombone. Lee is an alumnus of the Tonight Show Band and has toured with Supertramp and Tower of Power. I had written a simple trombone theme for the instrumental turnaround and connected with Lee through a mutual friend. I sent Lee a rough mix of the track in progress and the trombone part (which I had written out), but Lee came in with the complete horn arrangement you hear on the track and played all the parts.” The result is unlike anything else on guitar-pop radio today, but calls back to the days of the British Invasion and the swinging '60s while still sounding completely fresh and bearing all the earmarks of Shplang's playful, experiment ethos.

News on the full album is soon to follow single's release, and fans can expect the kinds of surprises that are, paradoxically, unsurprising on a SHPLANG record: memorable melodies, psychedelic touches and the rare humor and warmth that's underpinned nearly thirty years of work from the band. It starts here, and the reasons for our anticipation can be easily “Understood.”