Earlier this month, moe. released a new, five-song EP entitled Not Normal. Featured on the collection were four songs that have been in the live rotation for a number of years in addition to a new Rob Derhak-penned tune “Pill Vacation”. On Monday, the Buffalo-bred quintet shared a new video for the studio rendition of “New Hope For The New Year”, as well as provided the Relix team with some background on the song.

Not Normal came as moe.’s second studio release of 2020 behind This Is Not, We Are. Issued back in June, that nine-song offering marked the jam stalwart/Summer Camp Music Festival co-host’s first studio effort since 2014’s No Guts, No Glory. In the absence of the band’s typical juggernaut touring schedule, moe. has instead elected to get back into the studio and commit some live classics—as well as a few fresh tunes—to record.

Related: moe. Crushes First Half Of Yarmouth Drive-In Double Feature [Videos/Recap]

“New Hope For The New Year” drops listeners straight into the action with a driving rhythm from drummer Vinnie Amico punctuated by Jim Loughlin‘s vibraphone. Things then settle into an almost “Mountain Jam”-like tempo as dual lead guitarists Chuck Garvey and Al Schnier cohabitate in the song’s forefront. The opening instrumental odyssey wraps up as Garvey comes in with his lyrics that feel more relatable than ever as we trudge along for one more month of 2020 before a new year hopefully brings with it some salvation. All the while, familiar imagery from the Not Normal album cover flashes onscreen as it syncs to the music as even the studio cut stretches on to the nine-minute mark.

Along with the visualizer video, moe. shared the first in a weeklong series of videos with Relix that will see the band add commentary to the Not Normal tracks. First up is “New Hope For The New Year”, which Garvey started building as far back as six years ago. Yet it wasn’t until “three or four years ago” that the band began practicing the song together, only to debut it on February 3rd, 2018 at moe.’s second of two comeback shows at The Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, NY following Derhak’s successful completion of cancer treatment.

Watch the new visualizer video for “New Hope For The New Year” and get the full story on how the song came together straight from moe.

moe. – “New Hope For The New Year” (Not Normal Visualizer)

[Video: moe.]

moe. – New Hope For The New Year (Not Normal Commentary with Relix)

[Video: moe.]