The Academy Is… Returns With First New Album in Nearly 20 Years

Attention, attention! The Academy Is… is back. The pop-punk rockers announced their long-awaited return to new music with Almost There. The LP arrives March 27, via I Surrender Records and marks the band’s first new release in almost 20 years. Of course, the title is a nod to the band’s influential emo pop 2005 debut Almost Here.

“Our debut album, Almost Here, felt like a promise that if we just kept moving, we’d arrive somewhere permanent,” William Beckett says in a statement to Rolling Stone. “Twenty years later, Almost There reflects on the truth that you’re never really done becoming who you are. Life keeps changing the definition of ‘home,’ and this record is us reckoning with that; an exploration on life itself.”

In true flashback fashion, the Academy Is… have also shared lead single “2005” with the news. It’s a daydream of a song with shimmering synths brushed up against Mike Carden’s riffs and both drummer Andy Mrotek and bassist Adam Siska’s insistent rhythms. “Kiss me, right here like it’s the summer of 2005,” Beckett sings on the wistful track.

“William and I made the first record at nineteen and walked away at 28,” Carden said in a statement. “Almost There is really about everything that’s happened in the space between.” The new LP mirrors the band’s debut with both its title and themes as the Academy Is seeks to rexamine its past.

Almost There marks the band’s first LP since 2008’s Fast Times at Barrington High, which featured hit song “About a Girl.” It was the last full-length record before the Academy Is announced their disbandment in 2011. A few years later, in 2015, the band reunited to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Almost Here. Since then, the band has continued to perform scattered reunion shows and one-offs.

Last year, the Academy Is… hit the road for the Almost Here 20th anniversary tour. After selling out an initial leg, the band put more dates on the book. The second leg kicks off on April 10 in Buffalo, NY, with dates throughout April and May.

Despite the successful anniversary tour, Almost There isn’t only about looking back to the early-aughts peak of pop punk and emo music. “We want to write from where we actually are now,” Carden added. “Our audience is growing with us. They’re dealing with the same real-life changes, the same celebrations, the same setbacks.”

“Almost Here was about leaving home,” Beckett said in a statement. “This album is about finding your way back. It’s the other end of the spectrum.”

Almost There Track List