CARTEL Releases LEARNING HOW TO COPE, First Album Since 2013

Cartel has released Learning How to Cope, the band's fifth studio album and its first full-length release since 2013. The alternative rock group, formed in Conyers, GA, made the album available now via Field Day Records, including physical copies.

Fans previously heard advance tracks from the album, including 'Oxy Moron,' 'Give Or Take,' 'Deadbeat Drag,' and 'Shirts & Skins.' The album also includes a new track, 'Constants (feat. Dashboard Confessional).'

Frontman Will Pugh shared: 'It's been 13 years since I've had this feeling. Learning How To Cope is a journey that officially started 21 months ago, but in a lot of ways, it feels like it took the whole decade plus to be ready to write these songs. Life is funny in that way. It wasn't that long ago that I would've told you that Cartel was a part of my past, and I'm incredibly grateful that my past self was dead wrong. I'm forever indebted to everyone who has helped bring this record to life and to everyone who now will experience it with us. Thanks for sticking around. We can't wait to enjoy the journey from here.'

To celebrate the new album, Cartel is set to take the stage at Shaky Knees in their hometown of Atlanta before headlining a late night album release show at Masquerade. Fans can also catch Cartel at Riot Fest, Four Chord Music Festival, and Furnace Fest, rounding out a series of festival appearances that started this summer with Vans Warped Tour Montreal and Soundtrack Of Your Summer Festival.

Following the festivals, the band will hit the road as direct support for State Champs on their Around The World And Back Again Tour, kicking off November 5. A full list of upcoming shows can be found below or at cartelrocks.com.

About Cartel

Cartel didn't come back just to look backward. After crisscrossing the globe for the 20th anniversary of their landmark album Chroma, the group – vocalist Will Pugh, guitarists Joseph Pepper and Nic Hudson, along with recent additions drummer Kyle Adams and bassist Kevin Mahoney – have used that momentum to light the fuse on their future on Learning How To Cope (Field Day Records), their first album in 13 years.

Written against a backdrop of both personal reckoning and global unrest, the album pairs the hook-driven songwriting the group has always been known for with sharper edges, heavier weight, and a renewed sense of purpose. Learning How To Cope finds Pugh taking aim at a wide range of targets – the ruling class, broken systems and personal betrayals, among them – in a way that's equal parts confrontational and cathartic. 'Give Or Take' flips a middle finger to an unjust industry that's kneecapped the band at every turn, 'Disarmed' kicks back at close-minded bigotry, and the swelling, album-closing 'Everything's Fine' is a widescreen rumination on the world our children are forced to endure. Read one way, it's a stark reality of international genocide; read another, it hits closer to home, reflecting Pugh's fears as a father living in a country where gun violence is repeatedly handwaved away as the cost of freedom.

But rather than surrendering to despair, the album turns its fury into resolve. 'Don't you bury your head inside the sand / You can summon the courage to take a stand,' Pugh sings on 'All Singing, All Dancing,' a strength-in-numbers mentality that echoes across the record.

After tens of thousands of fans packed clubs across the country for the Chroma 20th-anniversary tour – and tens of thousands more filled festival fields at events like Warped Tour, Slam Dunk, and When We Were Young – it would have been easy to choose comfort over disruption. Instead, the band have done what they've always done best: challenge themselves and their audience alike, armed with something important to say.

Tracklist

1. All Singing, All Dancing

2. Oxy Moron

3. Constants (feat. Dashboard Confessional)

4. Deadbeat Drag

5. Shirts & Skins

6. Think Twice

7. Inside Out

8. Give Or Take

9. Supercalapocalypticexpialidocious

10. Sry Not Sry

11. Disarmed

12. Everything's Fine

Upcoming Festival Appearances

September 18 - Atlanta, GA - Shaky Knees

September 18 - Atlanta, GA - Album Release show at Masquerade (Purgatory) **

September 20 - Chicago, IL - Riot Fest

September 26 - Pittsburgh, PA - Four Chord Festival

October 10 - Birmingham, AL - Furnace Fest

** - Indicates headline show

Upcoming Tour Dates w/State Champs

November 5 - Allentown, PA - Archer Music Hall

November 6 - Buffalo, NY - Riverworks

November 7 - Indianapolis, IN - Deluxe @ Old National Centre

November 8 - St. Louis, MO - The Pageant

November 10 - Dallas, TX - Echo Lounge

November 12 - Phoenix, AZ - The Van Buren

November 13 - Las Vegas, NV - Brooklyn Bowl

November 14 - Riverside, CA - Riverside Municipal Auditorium

November 15 - Sacramento, CA - Ace of Spades

November 17 - Portland, OR - Roseland Theater

November 18 - Seattle, WA - The Showbox

November 20 - Salt Lake City, UT - Rockwell at The Complex

November 21 - Denver, CO - Summit Music Hall

November 23 - Davenport, IA - Capitol Theatre

November 24 - Louisville, KY - Mercury Ballroom

November 25 - Columbus, OH - Newport Music Hall

November 27 - Sayreville, NJ - Starland Ballroom

November 29 - Baltimore, MD - Nevermore Hall

December 1 - Richmond, VA - The National

December 3 - Nashville, TN - Brooklyn Bowl

December 5 - St. Petersburg, FL - Jannus Live

December 6 - Orlando, FL - House of Blues