Claud has revealed their forthcoming debut full-length, Super Monster, will be released via Saddest Factory Records on February 12th 2021. Along with the news, Claud has shared the new single, “Soft Spot.” Claud says of “Soft Spot,” ‘… Sigh. I have a soft spot for lots of people, places, and things. This song is about knowing I can’t be with this one specific person, but my feelings won’t go away… I still hope I run into them, or they randomly text me about something. It’s just me romanticizing what I can’t have and being like “but what if…”’ Claud Mintz is the first signing to Phoebe Bridgers’ new label imprint with Dead Oceans.

Super Monster is a story of lost and found loves, self-discovery and self-definition. Here, sad endings smash into happy ones, little moments get planetary-big, and our hero, the Super Monster, finds their voice through life’s trials and twists. Like the best and most timeless superhero stories, Super Monster is a story of transcending being misunderstood, both in love and in life. It’s also one hell of a debut album.

First recording as Toast in 2018, with their best college friend Joshua Mehling at Syracuse University, Claud’s early string of track releases were immediately impressive. The band was casual but enthusiastic and Claud would spend whatever time remained between classes writing to beats, eventually opting to leave Syracuse to focus on music. Life and output became feverish and more than 50 songs emerged during that brief span.

In early 2020, Claud sorted through those dozens of pieces, whittling them down to the baker’s dozen that now shape Super Monster, and headed home to New York to record at Electric Lady Studios with a wide network of close friends and new collaborators. Joshua Mehling played on and co-produced several tracks and the old friends were joined by Claire Cottrill (aka Clairo), Melanie Faye, Blu Detiger, Noa Getzug, Nick Hakim and Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s Jake Portrait.

The album’s artwork is a self-portrait by Claud and serves not just as album art, but as superhero mascot. Upon finishing a long day at Electric Lady, the studio owner uncovered and shared an as-yet-unpublished drawing by the late, great Daniel Johnston depicting a person leaping triumphantly from the surrounding grass. It was titled “Claud and the Super Monster” and, for Claud, the drawing and title depicted perfectly how the undefinable is often viewed as monstrous when it is in fact, freeing, even ascendant. Misunderstood, maybe, but also imbued with superpowers. The album’s working title was quickly usurped and the Super Monster was born.

Claud
Super Monster
Tracklist

Overnight
Gold
Soft Spot
In Or In Between
Cuff Your Jeans
Ana
Guard Down
This Town
Jordan
That’s Mr Bitch To You
Pepsi
Rocks At Your Window
Falling At The Rain

Pre-order HERE