Lung Photo: Rachelle Caplan

Cincinnati’s ethereal grunge band Lung will release their fifth studio album, The Swankeeper, on May 30.

Comprised of classically opera-trained singer and cello player Kate Wakefield and former Foxy Shazam bassist Daisy Caplan on drums, Lung has garnered praise for their “loud, dissonant, innovative and fearless” sound by publications like Fair Shakes and Just Dessert. Since forming in 2016, Lung has continued to create an atmospheric blend of heavy-hitting drums and intense cello, cementing themselves as distorted musical machines.

Wakefield states that the opening track of the album, “Everlasting Nothingness,” is a wild ride from start to finish. In a press release, the singer/cellist says, “It is a roller coaster of a track, and is a fitting beginning to our record. It almost invites you to spin out.”

“The roller coaster of reality and what it is to be “sane” on a tiny planet spinning through an endless horrifying and beautiful Universe,” Wakefield continues.

The concept of The Swankeeper was birthed from a song off the album called “Clown Car,” about which Wakefield states, “The Swankeeper came from a character that grew out of our song ‘Clown Car.’ She made it onto a later track as well. In my mind she is almost like a missing tarot card, and you aren’t quite sure whether she’s a god or a villain, whether she’s bringing truth or fiction. She’s probably all of it.”

The first single from the album, “The Mattress,” was released on April 22 and is to be followed by singles “Lucky You” on May 14 and “Clown Car” on May 22. Each song is accompanied by a strange and mystical music video crafted by the band’s visual artist Rachelle Caplan in response to the abstract lyrics and deeper meaning within each track.

“The lyrics about the Swankeeper sort of came out almost in a possessed way,” Wakefield says. “Those are some of my favorite lyric moments, when lyrics write themselves. The Swankeeper in my mind is this mystical unknowable force, possibly a liar, graceful and ominous, inviting you to ‘Follow the Failed Leader.’”

Their first solo album since 2022’s Let It Be Gone, the band says The Swankeeper was “a longer songwriting process than previous albums.” The album draws from nearly four years’ worth of songs in order to craft an oddball sound. Experimenting with distorted drum machines, samples, found sounds and vocal effects among others, the band credits sound engineer John Hoffman’s creativity as a large part of their creative process.

“We just went there with this one,” Wakefield says. “We let ourselves be weird — be out there. We let the songs drop any self-consciousness, and just strut out and be freaks…I hope this album makes people feel more alive, and seen in their aloneness, in the strange quiet feelings of being human.”

For more information on Lung and to pre-order The Swankeeper, visit lungtheband.com.

Listen to “The Mattress” from Lung’s forthcoming album, The Swankeeper:

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This article appears in Apr 30 – May 13, 2025.

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