The Format Are Back to Sin Again With New Single "Holy Roller" & 2026 LP
Keep The "The", it's Indie-r!
“I’ve been waiting all this time to be something I can’t define.”
Is it really happening? Is the aughts WunderTwink Nate Ruess and his scraggly guitarist Sam Means’ revival of their long defunct music project, The Format, finally back to the full powers the music industry never gave them?
The band announced their first new LP in 20 years this morning after their first few reunion shows in AZ and NYC. I’m split on how this could pan out. It’s usually a dichotomy of “fly or fuckup” when it comes to reunions of beloved yet short-lived musical projects. This could either be a wholesome, stellar revival that makes us appreciate even more the value of a Ruess melody in the long gap since 2015’s middling Grand Romantic. Or this could be their Everything Now, wherein we collectively un-stomp our millennial feet and lament the reunion tour was enough, fellas, don’t go on “writing” anything new.
“Holy Roller” and its accompanying music video has me leaning optimistic. Can Nate still write a hell of a song? Yes. Can he play guitar? Better than I thought. He never played any instrument until taking guitar lessons the past couple of years according to the rogue dirtbag left podcasts he’s been frequenting since the early 2020’s. Does the band have chemistry? We know Ruess and Means will always do their thing, the rest of the group has been a carousel of guys. But they do sound pretty tight to me. Maybe not fully in their groove, but together. And the production feels, while shiny and loud, not overly glossy, especially up against the vapid type of pristine a lot of modern rock production has embraced. This isn’t going to be as posh as The 1975 or as ragged as Geese. It is going to sound like 2002.
The bridge of the song ventures into some darker tones while still being pretty bubblegum, similar to fellow Arizona emo natives, Jimmy Eat World. I thought the ratio was well balanced. The latte of the band has always been primarily sugary hooks and choruses with sprinkles of melodrama creamer. Like, Nate is always going on about his death, but it’s not in a dire Oberst or RunForCover Records way.
On this track he hints toward his cute emo heart:
“I’d fake my death if it weren’t such a mess/For the people I love or who soon won’t forget me/But I’m staying alive just to see you roll your eyes and sigh”
These boys were never slitting their wrists, they probably ran cross country, albiet in girl jeans. According to a lot of my friends who were lucky enough to catch this band live the first time around, Nate had a lot more sex than most other emo bands. Maybe being pretty really is the difference. They’re doing a lot of na na na na’s in the chorus, this is more the common cold flavor of depression.
For a lot of emo and indie-obssessed folks, The Format have always been adored, partially because they were so ephemeral compared to bands of this ilk that got way bigger press. They were that band you always wanted to take off more. They deserved an Alternative Press cover story, didn’t they? And then when they (by which I mean just Ruess) did glimmer with gold as the principal frontperson for fun., it wasn’t exactly in the way the old Format heads always hoped it would be. I’m a fun. apologist. I think the production and theatre of that project was magnificent, but I always did feel like The Format had stronger legs than they ever got to run with.
Crucially, Nate is still cute as ever, his hair the perfect amount of messed up, his sleeves always rolled, and his smooth, naked mole-rat frame bobbing under his cheekbones and Old Hollywood eyes. His physical appearance being so intact is just as important as the music, honestly even more so. If I’m going to go to a Format show in 2025 I need to also believe I’m just a tender beautiful indie rock baby deer, only becoming more dazzling with age.
I will say, I absolutely hate the album name and artwork, (Boycott Heaven? Who still shops there, gurl?) but those elements could mean the music will be celestial, as was the case with Animal Collective’s Merriweather Post Pavilion, Big Thief’s Capacity, and MGMT’s Little Dark Age.
The new track is below, and I will see the boys live this Friday in L.A. My soul has been boycotting heaven since ‘92, but I’ll gladly share it with this band at the Hollywood Forever Cemetary.