Last month, Bully announced their new album, Sugaregg, and shared the lead single, “Where to Start”. Now the CoSigned rockers are back, and on their latest song they are ready to rip apart “Every Tradition”.
With “Every Tradition”, bandleader Alicia Bognanno is taking on society’s expectations for women, while also clapping back at one specific individual. She sings “You beat yourself up wondering why/ I won’t take a vow I don’t even wanna try,” and compares it to “pressure to have a baby/ When I don’t want one in my body.” It’s a song about rejecting shame and condescension, pushing back against people who suggest that “my mind will change one day.”
In a statement, Bognanno spoke about the difficulties of writing “literal songs.” She said,
“‘Every Tradition’ is one of the most literal songs on the record, forcing myself throughout the writing process to cut out the bullshit and put down on paper exactly what was going through my mind, silencing the paranoia of the different ways it could be received. Some songs just call for that sort of process and ‘Every Tradition’ was one of them.”
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The track comes with a music video co-directed by Bognanno and Alan Del Rio Ortiz. Shot from quarantine, it features Bognanno in close-ups with different colored filters. She tosses her head and rubs her face, as if working through the ideas that led to “Every Tradition”. It’s a simple and visually interesting take on the song’s themes, and you can check it out below.
Sugaregg is the follow-up to 2017’s, Losing, and it drops August 21st through Sub Pop. Pre-orders are on-going. Earlier this summer, Bully passed the time with some quarantine covers of Nirvana and Orville Peck.
