140g vinyl LP in gatefold jacket! Room Inside the World, the third LP from OUGHT and first for Merge, explores themes that have always concerned the band-identity, connection, survival in a precarious world-but with a bolder, more nuanced sound palette. Recorded at Rare Book Room in Brooklyn with producer Nicolas Vernhes (Deerhunter, Animal Collective, Silver Jews), Room Inside the World was approached with newfound patience. Together, Ought constructed a (digital) moodboard to set their intentions: Brian Eno and Stereolab synths, the Mekons' 1985 album Fear and Whiskey, and Gerhard Richter and Kenneth Anger's sexy, fluorescent hyperreal all made it into the melting pot. Holed up in their rehearsal building, an industrial rock block (and sock factory) overlooking the Trans-Canada Highway, the band strove for greater detail and specificity than before while remaining true to the collaborative, intuitive writing process that yielded their earlier work. Vibraphone, justly intonated synthesizers, drum machines, and a 70-piece choir suffuse the precise post-punk breakdowns that spangled Ought's first two albums, giving rise to an emotional complexity that pushes their characteristically taut sound to greater depths.
