Albummoe.Circle of Giants
moe. Opens Its 35th Anniversary Year With 'Circle of Giants'
The Buffalo-born band's 14th studio album is its first full-length since 2020 and the first to feature keyboardist Nate Wilson, arriving as a year-long 35th anniversary tour gets underway.
by
Jan 31, 2025
Circle of Giants, the 14th studio album from moe., was released on January 31, 2025. It is the band’s first full-length since 2020’s This Is Not, We Are.
The record is also the first moe. studio release to feature keyboardist Nate Wilson, who officially joined the band in 2023. Wilson wrote two of its songs, “Yellow Tigers” and “Giants.”
Ten tracks make up the album, which was issued on CD and as a 2xLP set pressed on Orange/Red and Hot Pink/Sky Blue Galaxy vinyl.
Ten songs, one of them twelve minutes long
The running order is “Yellow Tigers,” “Bat Country,” “Giants,” “Band In The Sky,” “In Stride,” “Tomorrow Is Another Day,” “Don’tcha Know,” “Beautiful Mess,” “Ups And Downs” and “Living Again.”
“Band In The Sky” is the longest piece on the record at a full 12 minutes. “Bat Country” runs 8:34 and “Giants” 8:21, giving the album three tracks that stretch well past the length of a conventional single.
A single that started as a pandemic experiment
Lead single “Ups and Downs” was issued on November 11, 2024, paired with a live video shot at Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom in Denver, Colorado in August 2024.
Bassist Rob Derhak traced the song back to the shutdown years. “Ups and Downs came about from an experiment I conducted during the pandemic in 2020,” he said.
He described the writing approach behind it in similar terms: “I came up with the idea of trying to write songs for people, and ‘Ups and Downs’ was one of those songs.”
A record shaped by hard years
The album’s backstory takes in co-founder Chuck Garvey’s recovery from a stroke and a personal loss suffered by Derhak. Garvey’s return to the stage was itself a milestone for the band, covered here when he rejoined moe. for its New Year’s run.
Circle of Giants arrived at the start of a year-long 35th anniversary celebration. The band’s 30th anniversary plans had been interrupted by the 2020 shutdowns, pushing the milestone marking to this cycle instead.
A tour with a pledge attached
The accompanying 35th Anniversary Tour opened on January 30, 2025 at the Aladdin Theater in Portland, Oregon, one night before the album’s release. The routing is slated to run through March 10, 2025 at Charleston Music Hall in Charleston, South Carolina.
One dollar from every ticket sold on the tour is pledged to Backline, an organization that provides mental health resources to touring musicians and their families.
The Upstate connection
moe. is a Western New York export, described by Live For Live Music as Buffalo-born.
Sources: moe. / Bandcamp, JamBase, Onstage Magazine.
Photo: hex1848, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
