Real Friends release new song “Smiling On The Surface,” announce new album

Real Friends have announced a new album, Composure, and released a new song “Smiling On The Surface,” which talks about trying to pretend like everything is OK when it’s not.

Read more: Real Friends admit questioning their future while recording new album, ‘Composure’

The band announced the album after a one year unpublicized hiatus due to vocalist Dan Lambton dealing with bipolar disorder. The album and “Smiling On The Surface” reflects a lot of what the band went through in the past year.

“Composure is everything we’ve always come up short on,” bassist Kyle Fasel says. “We focused more on melodies than ever before. We focused more on the overall emotional climate of each song than ever before. I truly think that every song on the record stands on its own. But when all the songs come together it creates our best effort to date.”

The band held three surprise listening parties in Chicago before the album was announced for fans to be able to hear the record before anyone else.

Composure will be released July 13 and can be preordered here. The band will be on Vans Warped Tour this summer, and you can check out the full list of dates here.

You can listen to the new song below.

The band released “From The Outside” earlier this month, and you can listen to that below.

Also, in this month’s issue of AP, Lambton recalls his early encounters with bullies to remind us how crucial perseverance is to our lives for out IT GOT BETTER feature. Pick up a copy here.

Check out the full tracklist for Composure and the album art below

Composure

1. Me First
   2. Stand Steady
   3. From The Outside
   4. Smiling On The Surface
   5. Hear What You Want
   6. Unconditional Love
   7. Composure
   8. Get By
   9. Ripcord
   10. Take A Hint