Middle Children release their album and title-track, “Earth Angel” via Lets Pretend Records today, and the band is kicking off release day with a new video where a puppy band saves the day from a drunk frontman. The band is also heading out on tour today, starting off in Knoxville, TN.

Middle Children’s Patrick Jennings, who writes, arranges, and records the band from his home in Bloomington, IN. His music became known to most initially through his band Hot New Mexicans, and later Purple 7. Jennings left Purple 7, a multi-songwriter group, to play music with childhood friend, Ginger Alford, formerly of the band Good Luck. The team enlisted a handful of musicians to make “Earth Angel,” include Kyle Houpt, Christopher Butcher, and Matt Tobey.

“Earth Angel” remains sparse and economical, despite additions of multiple guitars, piano, synth, or upright bass. Jennings’s voice is given plenty of space, allowing the listener to catch the many nuances in his delivery, how each syllable seems to emote, quickly shifting from vulnerable to confident, a whisper to a shout. He brings intensity to otherwise melody-driven songs, catching you off guard sometimes with a line like “shit gets real faster than your ass / goddam laugh while it lasts.” Such seeming non-sequiturs pop out among words that often look inward. In the lyrics you’ll find loneliness yet love for others, some self-defeat yet tenacity in the face of insignificance. “The sky can only spit on you / you speck.” An image of Jennings as the songwriter emerges – a hermit of sorts whose focus and dedication brings others warmly into the fold.

Middle Children on tour!

March 3 Knoxville, TN – Pilot Light*
March 4 Raleigh, NC – Slim’s Downtown*
March 5 Richmond, VA – Gallery 5*
March 7 Baltimore, MD – the Windup Space*
March 8 Philadelphia, PA – house show*
March 9 Brooklyn, NY – Don Pedro*
March 10 New Paltz, NY – Lagusta’s Luscious Commissary*
* w/ Erin Tobey