Eric Slick has always operated on good vibes. As the longtime drummer of Dr. Dog, he’s also an in-demand musician who’s recorded and performed with acts like Taylor Swift, Waxahatchee, Kevin Morby, and more. Where much of his adventurous solo music has matched the sunny disposition that’s made him the glue both onstage and backstage, his latest LP New Age Rage is a more acerbic and fully-formed portrait of the Nashville-based artist. Across 10 tracks, he channels his anxieties of a dystopian tech-driven future, an often tumultuous life on the road, and being understood into thrilling and provocative synth-pop. By making the most striking and ambitious departure of his career, he ends up with his most fully himself release yet. 

“With this album, I wanted to rattle a few cages and make something visceral that would provoke people a little bit” says Slick. “I didn’t want to put something out and have the reaction be, ‘This sounds nice.’” Compared to his breezy, ‘70s-rock-inspired 2020 LP Wiseacre, which detailed newfound domestic bliss, New Age Rage is abrasive and hard-hitting. There are glitched-out arrangements full of mesmerizing synths, unorthodox percussion, and bursts of robotic noise. The record’s musical palate mines from Slick’s all-time favorites like Sparks, Yellow Magic Orchestra, David Bryne, and Carla Bley: all artists who uncovered emotional truths through uncompromising experimentation. He wanted to write something he could seamlessly translate live that occupied the sweet spot between alienating and inviting. 

To do this, Slick had to throw out the formulas he’s used in the past. He took a songwriting class with the Dirty Projectors’ David Longstreth, which resulted in three songs that eventually made New Age Rage. He also opened himself for the first time to writing collaborations, bringing on co-writer Kyle Ryan (Kacey Musgraves) to help flesh out the material. On single “Lose Our Minds,” Slick even co-writes with his wife Natalie Prass. “Even though we’re married, Natalie and I had never written before,” says Slick. “But writing this song, we realized we should’ve done this sooner.” It’s a tongue-in-cheek dance party for the apocalypse that boasts an immersive groove that evokes Tom Tom Club. In the chorus, Slick sings, “We're almost out, out of time / Before it hits the fan / Cancel all your plans / Everybody clap your hands.” Though it’s undeniably infectious, there’s a palpably dark edge present. 

Slick initially thought to record New Age Rage entirely alone in his home studio in Nashville but he realized working with people he trusted and loved would help fulfill his vision best. He enlisted co-producer Andy Molholt (of Speedy Ortiz) to help color in the arrangements. “This is an Eric and Andy record,” says Slick, who credits Molholt with making the retro genre pastiche in the arrangements sound relevant and urgent – whether it’s the woozy, Bossa Nova-inspired “Darkest Shade of Red” that’s pocked with dial-up noises and vocoder effects, or the brooding, orchestral “Freakin’ Out.” Elsewhere, Slick recruits a rotating cast of collaborators that include Finom, Diane Coffee, Liam Kazar, and more.  

Making New Age Rage was an exercise for Slick to break out of comfortable habits and truly assert himself. For him, the latter has historically been his toughest hurdle. “I really am a people-pleaser kind of person,” says Slick. “It's part of being a side musician: you must be agreeable and down to play whatever you’re told. Making this record, I realized I need to shed this part of my personality.” The single “Anxious to Pleasure” captures these conflicting emotions perfectly. On the track, which boasts a brooding yet soaring chorus, Slick pleads over a bed of hazy synths, “I don’t wanna be liked anymore / I just wanna be loved / Is it so much to ask?” Written on the road at the Wolf Trap in Vienna, VA, it’s the most anthemic song on New Age Rage that finds tangible catharsis in its relatable lyrics.  

This is an album full of knotty anxieties. “Worrying about the future plays out every single day in my life as a touring musician,” says Slick. “From climate crisis waste anxiety on the road, your attention being tested with social media time-sucks, and AI taking jobs, these are issues that are important to check in on.” The title track is blistering, robot-funk, and a look at a potential cataclysm with lines like, “Thought we wanted everything but we don’t want it anymore / Something so sinister is comin ’knocking on your door.” These are lucid but dour lyrics, presented invitingly in a DEVO-like subversiveness. Throughout the tracklist, Slick packs clear-eyed warnings about bad futures into relentlessly palatable melodies. 

New Age Rage isn’t just about this bleak, anger-filled, and disconnected moment in human history. It’s also about Slick channeling these harsh, uncomfortable feelings into something productive. On “The Moment,” a song he wrote while on Waxhatchee’s St. Cloud tour, it reflects his 15 years of practicing meditation and his newfound focus as an artist and a human being. He sings, “When you’re crashing on the corner / Of what you had and what you wanted /  And I wish that I could hold it / But I know can’t control it.” Even when things feel impossible, there’s power and humanity in grappling with it.  “I didn't think I would ever make a record like New Age Rage,” says Slick. “This is the record I've always wanted to make. It’s helping me advocate for myself in ways I never thought was possible not just in the musical aspects, but on a day-to-day basis too.”