Image credit: press / Litehouse Media — litehouse.media
Holding Absence has released Modern Life Is Lonely, their fourth studio album, through Sumerian Records, and immediately turned toward a North American run with Arm’s Length.
The South Wales trio—Lucas Woodland, Scott Carey, and Benjamin Elliot—issued the record on September 18, 2026, alongside final pre-release single “Heaven.” Woodland has described the track as a classic Holding Absence chorus wrapped in newer textures, with electronic verses and a mid-song shoegaze breakdown. The accompanying video closes the band’s Y4 narrative arc.
The album title nods to Blur’s 1993 Modern Life Is Rubbish, but the songs focus on loneliness in a hyper-connected 2026. After a trilogy of more personal records, Woodland said the band wanted to write about the world around them rather than only internal therapy-style narratives. A character figure, Y4-BBO, appears as a technological mascot across the campaign; the helmet on the cover was built by the same craftspeople behind Doctor Who’s Cybermen, according to the band’s press notes.
Sonically, the group folds hyper-pop and lo-fi colors into post-hardcore grit, working with producer Daniel Braunstein—his first British band credit. Writing and demoing stretched about two and a half years.
After playing Louder Than Life on release day, the band opens the co-headline tour September 19 in St. Louis, with stops including Riot Fest in Chicago, Aftershock in Sacramento, and club and theater dates through mid-October.