Today, Nottingham quartet Do Nothing share the epic “Smile” the from upcoming album Friend World due November 6th via Submarine Cat Records. The past few months have seen the band debut these new songs in support of Everything Everything and Yard Act across the UK and Europe. Produced by Louis Milburn of former tourmates Folly Group, Friend World expands the band’s palette through synth flourishes, genre shifts and moments that are intentionally “a bit daft.” Listen to “Smile” here and preorder Friend World here.

“Smile,” with its wonky bass swagger and refrains of “how good it is to be alone at last,” is a song inspired by an online cartoonist who suffered from schizophrenia and took his own life. It serves as the lynchpin and calling card for the album both sonically and thematically: a bittersweet hymn for the disenfranchised, angry and alone.

Lead singer Chris Bailey explains. “He was obsessed with this puzzle book that was basically unsolvable, and made a sprawling, poorly drawn comic [that concluded with] his suicide note. It’s a difficult and often incomprehensible read, but I was really inspired by it.”

Watch the visualizer for “Smile” here

Friend World is inspired by Bailey’s own menagerie of “outsider” characters, whose perspectives are adopted throughout the record via his trademark wit and stream-of-consciousness lyricism. Drawing from the dark recesses of the universal life experience, the album forefronts introversion, awkward social interaction, and even self-deprecation and self-destruction. It all comprises some of the most compelling storytelling that Bailey has ever captured as a vocalist.

Three years on from the release of their critically acclaimed debut album Snake Sideways –– with early fans at BBC Radio 6, NME, DORK, DIY, Stereogum, Spotify, Apple; and having played European festivals, SXSW, and to packed rooms across the UK –– Do Nothing return with a record created with fewer expectations and a renewed sense of freedom.

While Friend World frequently returns to the darkness, self-deprecation and outsider perspectives that have long characterized Bailey’s writing, the album is ultimately defined by its contradictions. Inspired in part by the work of novelists like Elizabeth Smart and the deliberately alienating performance art of comedian Andy Kaufman, the album’s title embraces a kind of disarming positivity that sits in deliberate tension with many of its themes.

“Kaufman often used to end his shows singing a song called ‘This Friendly World’, by a guy called Fabian.” Bailey explains. “It’s this big, face-value expression of positivity that rang so weirdly to me. I found it difficult to interpret the lyrics as anything other than sarcasm.”

Across eleven tracks, Friend World explores loneliness, introversion, self-destruction and the awkward realities of human connection. Yet despite its lyrical bleakness, Bailey views the album as the band’s most joyful achievement to date.

“For me it’s an album about a lot of bleak things, but it doesn’t feel bleak. I enjoyed making it more than anything we’ve ever done, and I’m more proud of it than anything we’ve ever made.” says Bailey. That’s the point of the album really. There are two sides to everything. Without the bad, there isn’t the good.”