EW has an exclusive premiere of it in full below.
Presented in five acts,Front Row Seatunfurls the entirety of a spent relationship.
In time, it leads to nothing; no longer knowing each other at all.
Credit: Taylor Crothers
Looking for a tale as old as time?
But they all tell the story right, he says.
The smaller details arent the point of the story.
But perhaps the details are important here.
While at times despairing,Front Row Seatdoesnt pine for sympathy.
I havent made a record that pities me, Abbott says.
That was a time in my life that Im not proud of and have moved on from.
[But] I want people to hear the honesty.
I hope, by the end of it, they feel something.
When we first heard them, the hairs on my neck started standing up, he says.
It was like, Man, I dont care if this is radio successful.
The album finds gravity in the particularly vulnerable Ghosts, which shows Abbott at his lowest.
He says, Honestly… that was a line about contemplating suicide and battling drinking.
By the last chorus, Abbotts voice gives in to emotion.
Thick and off-pitch, its perfect.
Ghosts is followed by This Isnt Easy (Her Song), a space reserved for his ex-wife.
I wrote that from her perspective, he says.
Hes played it for her, explaining [Its] me trying to be super fair in this process.
Front Row Seat, for all its aching, is not wholly sad.
The first seven songs swing and stomp in all the ways the Josh Abbott Band-faithful have come to love.
Theyre raucous and rowdy, but also bigger, fuller better.
We didnt just throw everything people liked about us out the door, Keeter says.
[But] were all different musicians than we were three or four years ago.
Abbott continues, Were not just the same college, party, frat-boy band that we started out as.
Front Row Seatis out next week, Nov. 6, via Pretty Damn Tough Records.
