Simple Plan Announces New Album 'Harder Than It Looks'

Earlier this week, multi-million selling and streaming rock band Simple Plan announced their highly anticipated new album Harder Than It Looks, set to be released on May 6th, 2022.

They also shared a brand new single called "Congratulations".Harder Than It Looks marks the band's first release since 2016's Taking One For The Team. Pre-orders for the album, which features previous singles "The Antidote" and "Ruin My Life," are available here.

Fans can look forward to hearing new music live this spring as Simple Plan hits the road for the Blame Canada Tour with Sum 41. The first leg kicks off on April 29th and will feature support from Set It Off. The second leg featuring Magnolia Park starts on July 29th. For a full list of dates, please see below.

From their new millennium rise to MTV superstardom through pop-punk's modern resurgence that has introduced their iconic, multi-platinum sound to new audiences around the world, SIMPLE PLAN have been an indelible part of pop culture for more than two decades because they've never lost sight of what got them there in the first place: their fans.

The quartet, formed in Montreal in 1999, enjoy the rare sort of artist-audience dynamic that's never dulled over time-if anything, it's only grown, as both the band and their fans have learned that life as outsiders is anything but lonely.

Free agents for the first time in their storied career, the band kept their circle tight during the recording process, enlisting longtime songwriting partners like We The Kings' Travis Clark and producers Brian Howes and Jason Van Poederooyen (who worked on the band's 2011's album Get Your Heart On!) and Zakk Cervini(blink-182, Good Charlotte) to be part of the 2019 sessions. Bouvier himself even got in on the action, receiving producer credit for the first time after years of meticulously crafting the band's demos.

In a time when artists are more in control of their careers than ever before ("No one is ever going to care more about the band than we do," Comeau says proudly), the sense of freedom the quartet enjoyed while making the album let them follow their own convictions: No looming deadlines, no pressure from external forces to deliver anything other than the record they wanted to make. In doing so, they rekindled a spark they didn't know was missing.

"Throughout our career, it's taken a while to be mature enough to understand that our sound is an asset, not a liability," Bouvier says. "On this album we said: 'Let's just embrace who we are and not be afraid to do what we do best.' Making a good Simple Plan record is just as hard as making something off the beaten path."

Thus, HARDER THAN IT LOOKS: an album title that, true to form, elevates the adolescent joy hard-coded into Simple Plan's DNA since day one while at the same time reinforcing a sense of self-awareness that's guided them through a career full of ups and downs.

Listen to the new single here:

Tour Dates

Apr 29 - Raleigh, NC @ Ritz *
Apr 30 - Myrtle Beach, SC @ House of Blues *
May 2 - Philadelphia, PA @ The Fillmore *
May 3 - Pittsburgh, PA @ Stage AE *
May 4 - Silver Springs, MD @ The Fillmore *
May 6 - Worcester, MA @ The Palladium *
May 7 - Asbury Park, NJ @ Stone Pony *
May 8 - New York, NY @ Pier 17 - The Rooftop *
May 10 - Detroit, MI @ The Fillmore *
May 11 - Cleveland, OH @ House of Blues *
May 13 - Cincinnati, OH @ Andrew J Brady ICON Music Center *
May 14 - Milwaukee, WI @ Eagles *
May 15 - Chicago, IL @ Radius *
May 17 - Minneapolis, MN @ Myth *
May 18 - Kansas City, MO @ Uptown *
May 20 - Council Bluffs, IA @ Harrah's Stir Cove *
May 21 - St. Louis, MO @ The Pageant *
May 22 - Nashville, TN @ Marathon *
May 24 - Atlanta, GA @ Tabernacle *
May 25 - Tampa, FL @ Seminole Hard Rock *
May 27 - New Orleans, LA @ Orpheum Theater *
May 28 - Dallas, TX @ So What?! Music Festival
Jul 29 - Tulsa, OK @ Cains Ballroom ^
Jul 30 - Austin, TX @ Stubb's Waller Creek Amphitheater ^
Jul 31 - Houston, TX @ House of Blues ^
Aug 3 - Phoenix, AZ @ The Van Buren ^
Aug 5 - San Diego, CA @ SOMA ^
Aug 6 - Anaheim, CA @ House of Blues ^
Aug 9 - San Francisco, CA @ The Masonic ^
Aug 10 - Sacramento, CA @ Ace of Spades ^
Aug 12 - Portland, OR @ Roseland Theatre
Aug 13 - Seattle, WA @ Showbox SoDo ^
Aug 14 - Spokane, WA @ The Knitting Factory ^
Aug 16 - Garden City, ID @ Revolution ^
Aug 17 - Salt Lake City, UT @ The Complex
Aug 18 - Denver, CO @ The Fillmore

* - Features support from Set It Off
^ - Features support from Magnolia Park