Jon Stancer Shares New Album 'Are We Not Here For Fun?'

2025-10-01 01:46:45

EINPresswire/ -- Toronto-based alt-rock songwriter and musician Jon Stancer shares his new album, Are We Not Here For Fun?, via Weeeee! Records.

Are We Not Here For Fun? transforms the chaos of modern life into luminous, poetic soundscapes. Across immersive arrangements built on electronic textures, Brit-pop hooks and haunting strings, Stancer addresses the crises of our time: Rising fascism, fractured mental health, and the lure of destructive technologies.

The album’s 3rd single, following the peppy and ponderous lead single, “I Don’t Mind The White Noise”, and the very groovy title track shared last month, “Don’t Make Me Go Back” showcases Stancer’s vulnerability. Written after a therapy session, the song is, in his words, “a song of reflection, upon my own life, and life in general.”

Balancing deeply personal songs like “Don’t Make Me Go Back” and “2am” with dystopian storytelling (“With A Little More Luck We Can Get Out Alive”), Are We Not Here For Fun? offers rainy-day alt-rock firmly in Stancer’s own wry and empathetic voice. The music invites close listening — think “headphones-in-bed” or on a “43-minute walk,” as Stancer himself puts it. The record weaves darkly comic world-building, invoking noxious TikTok pranksters, overly sensitive hitmen and lovelorn robo-soldiers, with intimate portraits of relationships unravelling under pressure (“State Of The Union” / “Ricochet” / “Like Radio Waves”). These songs echo Robert Wyatt and Radiohead, yet remain unmistakably Stancer.

The follow-up to 2022’s critically acclaimed In Light Of EP, Are We Not Here For Fun? features an ensemble of musical heavyweights, including Joshua Van Tassel (Great Lake Swimmers, Rose Cousins) on drums, Grammy nominee Drew Jurecka on strings and co-producer Jean Martin (D.D. Jackson, Jesse Zubot).

On Are We Not Here For Fun?, Stancer proves that music can confront despair while refracting it into something hopeful. As he muses on “Hello Sundown”: It would be something / A matter of changing / A new way of being!

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