Photo by Kevin Allen

Anxious are always on the move, whether that’s on the road or in where the emotive melodic hardcore band is going next with their sound. They’ve been doing a lot of the former ever since releasing last year’s most excellent sophomore effort, Bambi, and they’re revving up for another round of taking life in on the road when they open for Citizen (who just released a great new album themselves in Halcyon Blues) on a diverse bill that also features a respectively multi-faceted cast of shoegaze next-gens in Hotline TNT, Rocket, and Cryogeyser.

Before it launches, the Connecticut quintet are adding a new track to their setlist with the single “Don’t Move”. There’s always a deeply personal story to be told through song behind it by vocalist Grady Allen — in this moment, recollecting the end of a relationship and the clarity found in his failed attempt to rebuild it — with he and his ‘mates continuing to push themselves in different directions of exploding alternative rock and layering in atmospheres with their emotions under the influence of classic Jimmy Eat World and their buzzworthy experimental guitar-pop labelmates Armlock.

For his part, Allen is also shedding a darker light on the messier aspects of adulted relationships where it’s not just about the unrequited heartache that upends your youth. It’s about the revealing insecurities, those intrusive thoughts, and the way sex entering the picture really fucks with your brain. “‘Did she do this for this him?’ / Something I think, but will ignore,” he sings. “Your breath on my skin / Sink through the bed and to the floor.” The barriers of the Anxious attachment style are really beginning to show here, even when momentum keeps tilting fast forward in their favor.

Visualizer by: Kevin Allen

Anxious’ “Don’t Move” single is available now on Run for Cover Records.