Failure have never been interested in standing still, and Location Lost makes that clear within the first few minutes. The Los Angeles trio’s seventh studio album does not lean on legacy. It pushes forward, sometimes uncomfortably, as if the band is actively testing how far their sound can stretch.
Released via their own Failure Records alongside Arduous Records and Virgin Music Group, the nine-track project arrives as something that feels like a recalibration. The band has described it as a departure, and that tracks. There are moments here that do not echo anything in their catalog, even as fragments of their past surface in flashes.
“The Rising Skyline,” featuring Hayley Williams, stands out immediately. The track strips things down, leaning acoustic while still carrying the band’s signature tension. Williams’ presence does not overshadow the song. It widens it, introducing a different emotional register without breaking the atmosphere. Elsewhere, “The Air’s on Fire” and “A Way Down” pull from darker influences, nodding toward early post-punk textures without settling into imitation.
What makes Location Lost work is the balance between precision and unpredictability. The opener, “Crash Test Delayed,” builds with a kind of controlled urgency, while “Halo and Grain” pivots into a bass-heavy groove that feels looser, almost elastic. Then there is “Solid State,” which locks into something heavier and more mechanical, echoing the density that defined Fantastic Planet without repeating it outright.
The album closes on “Moonlight Understands,” a slower, more reflective track that feels less like resolution and more like suspension. It does not tie things up. It leaves them open.
That approach extends beyond the record. Failure are heading into a packed tour cycle, with sold-out spring dates already behind them and a fall run that stretches across North America. The demand is there, but the band does not seem particularly concerned with meeting expectations.
Location Lost does not function as a nostalgia play. It reads as a band still figuring things out in real time, and choosing to stay there rather than circle back.
Featured image credit: Failure
