the boy least likely to announce sophomore album: 'the law of the playground'

Due out on +1 records in North America and their own Too Young To Die records in the UK on March 3rd, 2009!

'if all your childhood stuffed animals got together and started a band, it might sound like the boy least likely to.' - rolling stone

flash back with us to spring, 2006. the boy least likely to are the toasts of the twee town, with their debut album ‘the best party ever,’ whose rosy-cheeked hand clappy full of beans cheeriness had us all running outside and spinning til we were breathless and dizzy. pitchfork called the album 'a thing of wonder, made of rubber and springs.' the album went on to make more than its fair share of best-of lists that year, and remained in the public consciousness via syncs and placements long after the album's release. from grey’s anatomy to the trailer for juno, ‘be gentle with me’ became, like ‘young folks’ or ‘paper planes’, one of those breakthrough songs that lent itself to a myriad of contexts

'the only true twee pop heirs to belle and sebastian.' - spin magazine

this record should have been released sooner. originally, the album was scheduled to be released in the summer… but, last november when the band had finished recording, they took the album in to their record label, only to be told that the label didn’t exist anymore, the label had no intention of releasing the record and the boys couldn’t release it even if wanted to. stuck signed to a label that wasn’t a label anymore, they spent the rest of the year trying to get the record back so they could release it themselves, twiddling their thumbs and wondering if anyone would ever get to hear it.

but now, after lots of paper cuts, the duo from the little village in the middle of the english countryside are back with glockenspiels, banjos, fiddles and recorders thumping happily away, and given the spirit of the past few months, and a world caught between a renewed sense of optimism and purpose and worldwide economic uncertainty, it seems there is no better moment to release a second helping of the world’s friendliest band and their brand of wide-eyed indie pop. after all, no other band manages to sound quite so excited and quite so frightened all at the same time

'the law of the playground' tracklisting:
1) saddle up
2) balloon on a broken string
3) when life gives me lemons i make lemonade
4) i box up all the butterflies
5) the boy with two hearts
6) stringing up conkers
7) the boy least likely to is a machine
8) whiskers
9) every goliath has its david
10) the nature of the boy least likely to
11) i keep myself to myself
12) the worm forgives the plough
13) a fairytale ending

the boy least likely to are also contributing to the holiday season with a single called ‘the first snowflake’, a little pop song about feeling lost and alone at christmas, that makes you happy in the way that all the best sad songs should. it will be released on december 15th. stream the video at pitchfork.