{"id":2475208,"date":"2026-06-25T14:23:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T14:23:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2475208"},"modified":"2026-06-25T14:23:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T14:23:15","slug":"american-aquarium-have-a-song-about-losing-a-dog-that-will-wreck-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/american-aquarium-have-a-song-about-losing-a-dog-that-will-wreck-you\/","title":{"rendered":"American Aquarium Have a Song About Losing a Dog That Will Wreck You"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n

\n\tEach American Aquarium<\/a> album is best viewed as a slice of BJ Barham\u2019s life. The frontman writes in the moment, and his music is a distillation of the world as he sees it, and the life he has carved for himself along with his wife, Rachael, and their 8-year-old-daughter, Pearl, in the increasingly-suburbanized Wendell, North Carolina, a half hour east of Raleigh. In the two years since the last Aquarium record, as he wrote and recorded what became New<\/em> Ways to Lose<\/em>, Barham has been thriving.<\/p>\n

\n\tIf Bueller were still around, that would be the takeaway from the 10-track, Shooter Jennings<\/a>-produced record, which drops on Friday.<\/p>\n

\n\tAquarium\u2019s 12th studio album showcases the band at the top of its game and Barham at the top of his craft as a songwriter. More than a decade into sobriety, and nearly that long into parenthood, Barham has a content life in his midcentury-era home a few blocks from downtown Wendell, and on the road, where he has cracked whatever code independent artists must crack to sustain a career. The rock-edged New Ways to Lose<\/em> would reflect all that \u2014 and maybe even cause longtime Aquarium fans to reconsider their \u201cBJ Barham made me cry\u201d t-shirts \u2014 were it not for Bueller.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI wasn\u2019t ready for losing my first pet,\u201d Barham says. He\u2019s at his dining room table in Wendell, in early June. There\u2019s a stack of records a few feet away. Those are pre-orders of New Ways to Lose<\/em>, which Barham will pack and ship himself to fans who pre-ordered. We had just returned from lunch at Bellow Butcher, his favorite place to eat in a town full of his favorite things. He had shown me a slice of Wendell\u2019s history, which he sought to preserve in the face of encroaching development in 2025 when he ran unsuccessfully for town council.<\/p>\n

\n\tAll this shaped New Ways to Lose<\/em>, as did the death of Barham\u2019s mother on New Year\u2019s Eve 2019 and the death of his grandmother shortly before. None of it hangs over the record more so than Bueller, the French bulldog Rachael brought into their relationship and marriage. Bueller died in January 2024. Bueller was the first pet that BJ had as an adult. \u201cFavorite Hello,\u201d the seventh track on the album, is Barham\u2019s tear-stained tribute to his late best friend.<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n

\n\t\u201cMy favorite part was coming home from tour,\u201d Barham says. \u201cAnd when the key hit the door,\u00a0before Rachael or Pearl even knew I was home, you could just hear the feet trying to get traction on the hardwoods. He would come sprinting toward the front. I remember coming home, the first time after he passed away, to just a quiet house \u2014\u00a0when the key hits the door and there\u2019s nothing. That was when it hit me, and it happened to be a time when Pearl and Rachael were, like, running errands. It was me in an empty house and a silent house, and that\u2019s where I sat down and started writing most of that song.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBarham has never been accused of holding back, but even by his own standards, \u201cFavorite Hello\u201d is intensely sad, opening with a lighthearted recap of the joy brought to him before the chorus of, \u201cYou were the goodest boy a man could ever ask for\/My favorite hello was my hardest goodbye,\u201d lays bare Barham\u2019s grief. As fans have gotten early listens to the song \u2014 during encores, via Barham\u2019s Patreon<\/a>, or at a preview party in February at Barham\u2019s annual Roadtrip to Raleigh festival \u2014 the overwhelming response has been tear-filled. \u201cWhen that first chorus gets done, people are just ruined,\u201d Barham notes. After he wrote the song and played it for Rachael, it ruined her, too.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cVery rarely does she listen to a song I wrote and have an emotional response to it,\u201d he says. \u201cOften she listens and gives me very constructive \u2014\u00a0sometimes cruel \u2014\u00a0notes. I remember playing that song for her and she just broke. My wife is a very strong person, emotionally. Her constitution is very high. Watching her break down, I realized, \u2018Oh. This is gonna fuck<\/em> people up.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n

\n\tBarham took the song to Sunset Sound Studio 3 in November, where it made its impact on Jennings, himself a dog lover. It also blew away Barham\u2019s bandmates in American Aquarium.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI think it\u2019s important to give the listener a hint of hope or happiness in the arrangement,\u201d guitarist Shane Boeker says. \u201c\u2018Favorite Hello\u2019 could have easily been a slow, dark number. But by putting it in a key that sits on the higher end of BJ\u2019s voice, letting the rhythm section drive it, and adding some fun tones and a melodic hook, it juxtaposes the subject matter just enough to not be heavy-handed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn that respect, the song is also a microcosm of New Ways to Lose<\/em>. When Barham\u2019s friend Colin Nash, a songwriter from rural Missouri, texted him after seeing a closed sign on a discount store, the two turned it into \u201cDollar General,\u201d the album\u2019s first track about life in a no-stoplight town hit by hard times. Its lead single, \u201cTwin Flames,\u201d is Barham\u2019s rock-heavy, horn-backed ode to Rachael, with lines like, \u201cI found you this go-around\/I\u2019ll find you in the next one, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\n