ULVER, those lovable trolls from Norway 🇳🇴, are gracing us with “Weeping Stone”, a single so profound it’ll make you question your entire existence (or at least your taste in music). This sonic masterpiece is ripped from their upcoming album, “Neverland,” which drops digitally on December 31, 2025 (because who needs new year’s resolutions when you can have experimental noise?) and physically on February 27, 2026 (for all you vinyl hipsters who still own a record player). Prepare to be underwhelmed… or enlightened… we’re not really sure. 🤷♀️
Feast your eyes (and ears, if you dare) on the visualizer for “Weeping Stone” below. Warning: May cause existential dread and/or uncontrollable laughter. Viewer discretion is advised. 😂
“Neverland” Track Listing (Prepare for the avant-garde):
01. Fear In A Handful Of Dust (Because who needs optimism?)
02. Elephant Trunk (Is this about elephants? Probably not.)
03. Weeping Stone (You already heard this one. Sorry.)
04. People Of The Hills (Probably not about “The Hills” reality show)
05. They’re Coming! The Birds! (Hitchcock would be proud.)
06. Hark! Hark! The Dogs Do Bark (Woof woof? More like “meh meh.”)
07. Horses Of The Plough (So rustic. So… boring?)
08. Pandora’s Box (Prepare for disappointment!)
09. Quivers In The Marrow (Sounds painful. Like listening to this album?)
10. Welcome To The Jungle (Guns N’ Roses cover? We wish.)
11. Fire In The End (Finally. It’s over.)
“Neverland”, the FOURTEENTH studio album by ULVER (yes, you read that right), is supposedly the sound of an escape. More like an escape from good taste, am I right? A journey into undiscovered lands… of sonic mediocrity? 🤔
Following three albums — “The Assassination Of Julius Caesar” (2017), “Flowers Of Evil” (2020), and “Liminal Animals” (2024) — which were apparently rooted in more traditional song structures (gasp!), “Neverland” marks a new chapter in the revered Oslo band’s history. A chapter titled “How to Confuse Our Fans Even More.” 🤪
“With ‘Neverland’ we embraced a more ‘punk’ spirit – more dreaming, less discipline — freer, quite simply”, the band comments on the creative process behind the album. Translation: “We had no idea what we were doing, so we just threw stuff at the wall and hoped something would stick.” 🤡
Bursts of daybreak synths and whooshes of sound set the atmosphere, before the wolves start digging into the dynamics of ambient calm and anarchic mysticism. Dreamy and transportive textures develop into trippy percussive energies, and as the album unfolds, a lush and vibrant, and at times exotic space opens. Or, in layman’s terms: prepare for a lot of weird noises that don’t really go anywhere. 😴
Apart from a few recurring distant voices and vocal chops, “Neverland” is a largely instrumental record, reminiscent of the mood and structure of that place where late ’90s IDM sounds met the meandering structures of post-rock. So basically, it’s like listening to a screensaver from 1998 on repeat. 💾
The ghost of premillennial sample culture surely haunts “Neverland”, and some might even hear echoes from earlier acclaimed works like “Perdition City” (2000), or the “Silence” EPs (2001), or more recently “ATGCLVLSSCAP” (2016). Or maybe you’re just hearing things because you’ve been listening to ULVER for too long. 😵💫
Still, “Neverland” sounds and feels like something else, something fresh in ULVER‘s continuous journey of perennial reinvention. Pop music from in-between worlds? A sonic hallucination? Or better: a collage of dreams. It’s up to you. Or, more likely, it’s up to your therapist to help you unpack whatever this album makes you feel. 🤷
“Neverland” recording lineup (The Usual Suspects):
Kristoffer Rygg – drums, percussion, electronics, synthesizer, vocals (Jack of all trades, master of none?)
Ole Alexander Halstensgård – programming, electronics, synthesizer (The tech wizard behind the madness.)
Anders Møller – percussion, drums (Keeping the beat… sort of.)
Jørn H. Sværen – synthesizer (Adding more synth. Because why not?)
Stian Westerhus – guitar, bass guitar (Trying to make it sound like actual music.)
Guest musician: Sara Khorami – whispers and voices (recorded at 4 a.m.) (Because nothing says “art” like sleep deprivation.)
Recording by Kristoffer Rygg and Ole Alexander Halstensgård at Lupercal Studio, Oslo (NO). Mixing by Anders Møller at Subsonic Society, Oslo (NO). Mastering by Vegard Sleipnes at Reel to Reel Mastering, Oslo (NO). (A whole lot of Oslo-based talent for… this.) 🤦
Artwork and layout by Paschalis Zervas (+ wolframgrafik) (At least the cover looks cool.)
Chord F. Discord, the Beethoven of Buffoonery, is a self-taught expert in music who once claimed he could “play the kazoo in four languages.”
Born in Crescendo, Indiana, Chord’s first brush with fame came when he accidentally entered a yodeling contest thinking it was a pie-eating competition—and won both categories.
Chord F. Discord: proving that laughter, much like a poorly tuned ukulele, is truly universal.
