This month, The Struts dropped a new title track ahead of their third album, Strange Days, which is set to release Friday, October 16. In collaboration with Robbie Williams, “Strange Days” reflects on the drastic changes and hardships that the world has undergone in 2020 amidst the global pandemic.

Despite every downside of the pandemic, spending time in quarantine has inspired the band to push their creative boundaries for a new project. The English rockers recently shared a post on their Instagram page, stating, “Finding all of our grand plans for 2020 canceled or postponed early this year, we gathered together safely in the studio and wrote and recorded the entire album in just ten days.”

View this post on Instagram

Ladies and gentlemen, today we are very pleased to announce our new single and new album, STRANGE DAYS. We are honoured to have one of our musical heroes, the legendary @RobbieWilliams, featured on the title track which debuted today on @bbcradio2 and will be available to stream and download everywhere at 5pm UK/12pm ET/9am PT. Finding all of our grand plans for 2020 canceled or postponed early this year, we gathered together safely in the studio and wrote and recorded the entire album in just ten days. It was undoubtedly a magical ten days for us—and we hope when you hear the album, it gives you a taste of that magic too. STRANGE DAYS will be available 16th October and album preorders will be available beginning 6pm UK/1pm ET/10am PT at thestruts.com. Thank you all so much for your continued support and we hope these songs bring you some joy in these Strange Days x

A post shared by The Struts (@thestruts) on Sep 2, 2020 at 8:36am PDT

//www.instagram.com/embed.js

The Struts’ frontman Luke Spiller also shared that collaborating with Williams was initially a surprise out of complete serendipity. He explained that during his band’s lockdown live stream show, “Robbie hit me up out of the blue asking if we could talk. We ended up Face-Timing for about two hours the first time we’d ever spoken, talking about life and music and UFOs and everything else you can think of.” From that point on, they discussed joining forces on The Struts’ new record in the works, and Williams eventually agreed to meet up.

Lyrically, this slow-burning single acts as a reminder to practice positivity, gratitude and mindfulness. The Struts and Williams sing, “Oh, these are strange times // In many strange ways // A message to outer space // Send help ’cause we lost our way.”

Additionally, Spiller claims that these strange times have left us “lost in our minds,” and he ultimately believes that science fiction “has become reality.” Here, Spiller touches on the experience of derealization, in which someone begins to feel detached from their overall environment. The world may seem distorted and unreal as if one is observing life through a veil or glass wall. The lyrical content of the new song can be validating to those who feel the same and will provide comfort to many as we prepare for the unexpected.

Featured Image: Interscope Records