PLASTICSOUL and BIG STIR RECORDS are thrilled to announce a landmark release for the band and the label alike: the new album from the California power pop/indie/glam rock heroes: WE CAN HEAR YOU, CLEM FANDANGO. It's the group's first full-length record since their widely acclaimed 2017 album THERAPY, which was also the very first ever Big Stir Records release. Previewed by the hit indie single “J'adore” and the upcoming “Little Jewel,” the album leans more heavily than ever into the gritty glam rock sound while showcasing the hooks, wit and vocal firepower for which singer/songwriter/guitarist Steven Wilson is rightly renowned. The new album is out on Vinyl, CD, and all digital platforms worldwide on November 20 and it's up for preorder and presave now:

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“It’s a rock and roll album,” says Wilson of the album that he and the same, quintessential lineup of the band that delivered THERAPY (bassist Marc Bernal, drummer Steven Markowitz, guitarist Daniel Conrad and himself) have crafted over the past nine years, interrupted by a global pandemic and his own move from Los Angeles to Northern California while the rest of the band stayed put. “It is, for the most part, a lot of fun. The guitars are big, the vocal harmonies are rich, and the rhythm section holds the groove down so you can shake your rump. It’s an album that wants to be played loud, so turn it up.” The lead single and opening track “J'adore,” already a hit on global indie pop radio, bears that out. With its driving guitars, unforgettable “woo woo” vocal hook, ersatz French exclamations and let's-hit-the-town attitude, it's both an ideal introduction and a mission statement for PLASTICSOUL in 2026: the whole album rocks harder and leans further into the band's glitter rock roots than ever before.

The one-two punch of rockers at the album's start – “J'adore” followed by the irresistible, self-explanatory homage “(She's Got) The Move” – set up the stomping glam-forward framework that gives CLEM FANDANGO its shape. The record repeatedly returns to new and exciting variants on the down-and-dirty rock and roll sound with a vigor and chemistry that can only be accounted for by the fact that PLASTICSOUL has never been far from the live stage during the years since the last album, road-testing these tunes throughout California and the UK. You can hear it on the snarling extraterrestrial excursion “Dream Filter” (set to serve as the third single from the album) and a pair of blistering, pointed takedowns of some of modern culture's most toxic characters: the swinging “Virulent Rich Boys” and the blistering, album-closing “Eugenics Afterparty (aka The Dullard’s Cha-Cha)”.

With those tracks, CLEM FANDANGO can be said to contain some of most exciting melodic hard rock to grace the indie scene this year, but it has textures beyond that as well. Many of them follow Wilson's long-held thematic concerns: as a lyricist, he's always had a gift for the transcendently absurd, and the absurdly transcendent. Midway between “J'adore” with its celebration of the transformative power of rock (“Let your pride fall to the floor, dance Les Bouffons ‘til we’re sore”) and the sci-fi imagery of “Dream Filter” (“I had a dream about their big grey heads last night, they touched my head and gave me the second sight”) is the jangle-rock gem “Radio Spaceship.” It finds Wilson “longing for a great radio station with a killer DJ like the ones from my youth,” its harmonies and retro beat sounding ready-made for the the airwaves it imagines.

Equally striking is the absolutely gorgeous second single “Little Jewel,” which positively floats in a more stately, psychedelic fashion. The glitter's still there, along with the hooks, but this is unambiguously the lighters-up ballad of the album. Standing with the best arena singalongs in rock history from KISS to Oasis, it marks a departure from the currents of celebration and cynicism that alternate elsewhere in the album: it's a sweetly personal message of empowerment for the deeply challenging times we all face now. And it's not alone in that sense, as “Build My Invention” (which Wilson describes as “Plasticsoul doing Teenage Fanclub doing Neil Young”) urges listeners up a literal mountainside, and the pure pop rock of “You're So Money” echoes the hopeful anthems of the past, asking “Don’t you know you’re a superstar?” Wilson seems as surprised by the outpouring of positivity as anyone. “It’s very rare that I write positive affirmation songs. Strangest thing – on this album, we did three. When did I become so hopeful?”

Truthfully, though, there's hope at the core of everything that PLASTCSOUL does. While WE CAN HEAR YOU, CLEM FANDANGO is rife with moving moments and more than a little sly social commentary, it fundamentally takes the redemptive power of rock as its subject. And it repeatedly offers up – and in the process, celebrates – that primal, celebratory energy with rare generosity and sincerity. It just might be the best reminder you've heard all year of what rock and roll is really about. PLASTICSOUL is a band that seems to rock ever harder with age, but never loses sight of the melodic magic that's been there since the beginning. The new album, for all the years that went into its invention, is the purest and most cathartic expression of their unique and thrilling take on the form yet. Turn it up.

Expected release: November 20, 2026