TENDER, the UK duo have announced the details, behind their forthcoming release Modern Addiction. The full-length will be available September 1st via Partisan Records and Culvert Music (CAN). Along with the announcement, TENDER have shared the video and lead single ‘Nadir’.

After the collapse of a long-term romantic relationship, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist James Cullen, found solace in TENDER and created his most personal work. “Nadir” focuses on the damage done to one’s psyche when staying in a relationship way past its healthy conclusion. Directed by Jack A. Bowden, the video for “Nadir” shows the highs and lows of romantic entanglement through dance. Bowden spoke more on the inspiration behind the video saying; “Tender wanted to take the direction of a fragmented and collapsing relationship with this one. I decided to touch on the different dynamics which a relationship can hold. Beyond “happiness” and “sadness”, there are times when two people are just on different paths. No matter the effort they put in, something else is putting them off-kilter and out-of-synch. Call it bad timing, differences, whatever. People also become desensitized to one another, almost reaching slumber, unaware and oblivious to the other’s feelings. The energy of ‘Nadir’ screams dance to me, so I thought it would be interesting to express these dynamics through contemporary dance.”

Modern Addiction is about duality, the unreliable polarity of human magnetics. The opening track, ‘Illuminate,’ describes a struggle for independence in the face of scale-tipping dominance. ’Vow’ finds beauty in the unique balance of a moment. ‘Nadir,’ the album’s most precise emotional indictment, lurches from underneath, “I hate it when you touch me, but I’ve kept it under wraps / Get bored of trying foreplay and I think we’re getting fat.” Swimming in between polished sub tones and global rhythms are relatable fallacies of love. These tracks have refreshingly inclusive sensual detail, and are liquid enough in their diction to be tangible to those who navigate the many flavours of romance in the year 2017. These are ultimately pop songs, meant to illuminate the ubiquitous but hidden. “We want it to make people connect with each other. We want to evoke emotion. We want people to dance,” says Cobb.

While Modern Addiction often deals with the bleak realities of a love that’s fading, repeated listens offer a sense of optimism. It’s the relief that comes from getting through to the other side. The second half of the ‘Nadir’ is about “loving someone in a different way,” Cullen says. “Because it isn’t how it was in the beginning, doesn’t mean it’s not real.”

Cullen and Cobb formed TENDER in 2015, as the bedroom project of two flatmates tired of the design-by-committee nature of larger musical groups. Due to their intimate personal geography, Cobb was privy to the ’toxic’ relationship that gestated Cullen’s lyrics, and this record. Gladly enough, in regard to music-making with Cobb, “Nothing seemed like a struggle. We never fought anything,” Cullen remembers. They self-released a few songs and “Armour” wound up on the front page of Reddit a few hours later (with several hundred thousand plays on Soundcloud).

Tender
Modern Addiction
Track Listing

Illuminate
Nadir
Hypnotize
Crawl
Erode
Silence
Machine
Sickness
Vow
Blame
Powder
Trouble

Tender
live Dates

Aug 29 – Manchester, UK – Deaf Institute
Aug 30 – Glasgow, UK – King Tut’s
Sep 1 – Bristol, UK – Louisiana
Sep 2 – Nottingham, UK – Bodega
Sep 4 – Birmingham, UK – Sunflower Lounge
Sep 5 – London, UK – Village Underground
Sep 10 – Los Angeles, CA – The Echo
Sep 11 – Santa Ana, CA – Constellation Room
Sep 13 – San Francisco, CA – Rickshaw
Sep 15 – Seattle, WA – Vera
Sep 17 – Vancouver, BC – Cobalt
Sep 19 – Denver, CO – Lost Lake
Sep 21 – Chicago, IL – Beat Kitchen
Sep 22 – Toronto, ON – Adelaide Hall
Sep 24 – Washington, DC – Songbyrd
Sep 25 – Philadelphia, PA – World Cafe
Sep 27 – Brooklyn, NY – Baby’s All Right
Sep 28 – Boston, MA – Great Scott