Holding Absence | Credit: Bethan Miller
The South Wales trio’s fourth album expands their post-hardcore sound as the band begins a U.S. co-headlining run with Arm’s Length.
Holding Absence have opened their next chapter with Modern Life Is Lonely, the South Wales trio’s fourth full-length album, released September 18 through Sumerian Records.
Arriving alongside the album was “Heaven,” its fourth and final single, accompanied by a lyric video that completes the band’s Y4 narrative. The release also comes as Holding Absence returns to the U.S. for a run of fall dates, including a co-headlining tour with Arm’s Length and several festival appearances.
“Heaven” connects elements of Holding Absence’s established sound with some of the electronic and atmospheric ideas explored throughout the new record. Vocalist Lucas Woodland described the track as both familiar territory and an example of the band’s evolving approach.
“For our fourth and final single from MLIL, we’re ecstatic to release our song “Heaven”! This one feels like a classic HA song, with a heart-wrenching message and an epic chorus, but of course, repackaged into our newer style,” Woodland said.
According to Woodland, the song moves from electronic-influenced verses into a section recalling the shoegaze elements of the band’s earlier work. Its accompanying visual also concludes the story surrounding Y4-BBO, a character created as part of the broader Modern Life Is Lonely concept.
That narrative plays an important role in an album concerned with technology, isolation and the contradictions of modern connection. Y4-BBO serves as a character through which Holding Absence can examine those ideas rather than placing Woodland’s personal experiences at the center of every song.
The approach marks a shift following the band’s first three albums: 2019’s self-titled Holding Absence, 2021’s The Greatest Mistake Of My Life and 2023’s The Noble Art Of Self Destruction. While those records frequently drew from Woodland’s internal experiences, Modern Life Is Lonely turns more deliberately toward the world surrounding him.
“This album was really the first time that I thought, ‘Let’s speak about the world that I live in, rather than the world that I am,’” Woodland explained. “It’s no longer like a therapy class; a bunch of strangers are no longer turning up to Existentials Anonymous. In theory, everyone knows me now; they’ve heard my journey, but I’m still struggling in this big, bad world.”
The album’s title references Blur’s 1993 record Modern Life Is Rubbish, but Holding Absence use that starting point to address their own era. Themes of loneliness, technological change, uncertainty and the tension between constant digital connection and personal isolation run throughout the project.
Musically, the trio — Woodland, guitarist and vocalist Scott Carey and bassist Benjamin Elliott — also pushed beyond the parameters established across their earlier catalog. The album incorporates influences from hyper-pop and lo-fi alongside the post-hardcore foundation associated with Holding Absence, with Julia Wolf and Paledusk cited among the artists who helped inspire the band’s willingness to experiment.
That experimentation extended to the construction of the songs themselves. Rather than relying exclusively on conventional arrangements, the band manipulated tempos, rearranged sections and combined electronic textures, synthesizers and heavier passages while developing the material.
Daniel Braunstein produced Modern Life Is Lonely, marking his first time working with a British band. Holding Absence spent approximately two and a half years writing, demoing and developing the album — the longest period the band has devoted to making a record.
“We pushed ourselves in ways that we’d never had before, while maintaining what that language of Holding Absence is,” Woodland said. “We’ll be introducing people to new sounds, and that’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time.”
That willingness to change without abandoning the band’s identity places Modern Life Is Lonely at a distinct point in Holding Absence’s career. More than a decade into the project, the trio are using their fourth album to widen both their musical palette and the subjects they address, shifting from a largely autobiographical perspective toward questions about the environment in which those personal experiences take place.
The album’s release also coincides with another stretch of North American touring. Following Holding Absence’s September 18 appearance at Louder Than Life in Louisville, Kentucky, the band’s scheduled U.S. dates continue through October 17. The itinerary includes a co-headlining run with Arm’s Length alongside appearances at Riot Fest, Aftershock and Ceremony Fest.
Album Information
Holding Absence — Modern Life Is Lonely
Release Date: September 18, 2026
Label: Sumerian Records
Producer: Daniel Braunstein
Track Listing
Reanimate
Reflection
Heaven
Modern Life Is Lonely
Take Me With You
shells_like_us.int
Whisper Of A Dream
Lucid Love
Scorched Earth
lullaby.int
Kyoto Snow
2026 U.S. Dates
09.18 — Louisville, KY — Louder Than Life*09.19 — St. Louis, MO — The Sovereign
09.20 — Chicago, IL — Riot Fest
09.22 — Grand Rapids, MI — Intersection
09.24 — Minneapolis, MN — Varsity
09.25 — Lawrence, KS — Granada
09.26 — Ft Collins, CO — Washington’s
09.27 — Colorado Springs, CO — Black Sheep
09.29 — Las Vegas, NV — Area15
09.30 — Pomona, CA — Glass House
10.01 — Sacramento, CA — Aftershock*
10.02 — Los Angeles, CA — The Regent Theater
10.04 — Albuquerque, NM — Sunshine Theater
10.06 — San Antonio, TX — Paper Tiger
10.07 — Houston, TX — Warehouse Live
10.09 — Jacksonville, FL — Five
10.10 — Greensboro, NC — The Pyrle
10.11 — Allentown, PA — Archer Music Hall
10.13 — New York, NY — Irving Plaza
10.14 — Worcester, MA — The Palladium
10.15 — Pittsburgh, PA — Roxian
10.17 — Nashville, TN — Ceremony Fest
*Holding Absence only
Band Lineup
Lucas Woodland — Vocals
Scott Carey — Guitar/Vocals
Benjamin Elliott — Bass
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