Lambchop's seventeenth album Punching the Clown finds Kurt Wagner returning to first principles. Sparked by a late-night radio encounter with an unidentified gospel recording, Wagner fell deep into the world of "lined out singing" a centuries-old Scots-Appalachian call-and-response tradition in which a lone clerk leads a choir through hymns, word by unadorned word. That spirit of raw, communal voice shapes every moment of Punching the Clown: Wagner spent years studying great songwriters and relearning his craft from the ground up, whittling dozens of songs down to twelve. Recorded in three days with guitarist Andrew Broder, Justin Vernon on banjo, and a six-part choir assembled by Blake Morgan and engineered by Lambchop veteran Mark Nevers, the album is graceful, wry, and quietly devastating.

“A thing of spine-tingling hymnal beauty” - UNCUT

“Punching The Clown sees Lambchop back in focus, Wagner taking on the big questions and the small details, always aware of those truths that lie just out of reach” - MOJO

“A hypnotic feel, as though you’re listening to waves crash on to the beach” - CLASH

“Gorgeously meditative” - OUR CULTURE

Album of the Week - THE GUARDIAN

Best New Music - PITCHFORK

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TRACKLIST:

Side A

01 Just West of Nicollet

02 A Doctor in the House

03 Weakened

04 Stella

05 Punching the Clown

06 White People

Side B

07 The New World Wave

08 Andrew Jackson Asshat

09 Afterburner

10 Cigar

11 To Do

12 No Chicago