Bush - The Art Of Survival (Deluxe) (2023)

BUSH will release the deluxe edition of its 2022 album, "The Art Of Survival", on June 9. A new single, "All Things Must Change", has just been made available. The track continues the "hot streak" of collaborations between top producer/writer Erik Ron and BUSH guitarist Chris Traynor with Gavin Rossdale's lyrics and melody. A bruising heavy rock song that interrogates the unexpected changes that life has in store, "All Things Must Change" yet again proves that BUSH is still one of the most vital voices in contemporary music.

Rossdale stated about the track: "This is nature. All things are changing. All the time."

Having received immensely positive reviews upon release, the deluxe edition of "The Art Of Survival" cements the album's status as a classic of the already BUSH catalog. AllMusic remarked that it was their "their best post-hiatus offering to date…an essential late-catalog installment that re-energizes their sound with fresh tricks and newfound purpose" while Billboard noted that "The Art Of Survival" "finds Rossdale and company full of bombast, huge guitars, and memorable hooks."

BUSH is back on the road for another hard-charging romp around the country, this time once again alongside BREAKING BENJAMIN. The band will be hitting markets not yet served by their previous tours supporting "The Art Of Survival". Kicking off on May 2, the shows feature a mixture of classic cuts like "Machinehead" and "Glycerine" in addition to new music like "More Than Machines" — BUSH's seventh No. 1 at radio — that showcases the diversity and timelessness of the BUSH songbook.

BUSH wrote and recorded what would become "The Art Of Survival" during 2022, reteaming with Ron (PANIC! AT THE DISCO, GODSMACK) who produced "Flowers On A Grave" and the title track for 2020's "The Kingdom", and collaborating once again on two tracks with film composer, musician, and producer Tyler Bates ("300", "Guardian Of The Galaxy"). The central theme speaks to both the human spirit's resiliency in the face of trials and tribulations as well as the band's own enduring place as rock outliers.

In an interview with Stereogum, Rossdale was asked about the "more metallic sound" of "The Art Of Survival" compared to BUSH's earlier efforts. He responded: "Metallic, or metal? It's not a metal record, 'cause I don't sing that way,[but] look, I'm always trying to push.

"I totally accept rock's position in the culture, which is pretty — it's weird 'cause on the one hand it's nonexistent, and on the other hand, I'm playing to 350,000 people over the course of, like, two months.[Those aren't] 350,000 invisible people.

"For me, as a songwriter, I'm just always looking for different ways to challenge myself and keep it fresh, keep it interesting in service of a long career. People can either mellow out into the sunset, or they do something like I've done with 'The Kingdom' and with 'The Art Of Survival', which is try and fight, go against the tide of the success of the band, try and create records that exist in their entirety on their own. They don't lean on the previous work, you know? To me, it's just trying to find what inspires me, what's interesting, what I like in a studio, that's really what it is. And I get the luxury of being to an extent my own producer, where I can make tracks for myself to sing on. And then I collaborate, I sing on other people's music, whatever, I'm very collaborative. But in terms of the meat of the record and getting the aesthetic going, it's just me in a room, and I've noticed that these last few years so much is given to the live performance.

"I play metal festivals, rock festivals, alternative, more pop-leaning festivals sometimes, not often, so I would find myself over the years choosing the heavier songs off of certain records. You want to survive amongst peers on those stages and not be just going[sings mournfully], 'Swallowed…'[Laughs] It's a bit much. It just got into that situation, and I had that one record that we did called 'Institute', which is all[written in] drop C sharp and it was really fun to do, and I don't know, I just kind of felt there was something about that that's exciting to me. People have said about the last two records, 'Oh, it sounds like old BUSH,' you know? And I think that non-musical people just think that 'cause the intention and the vitality to it is consistent, that's what it is. Musically it's completely different.

"I read people writing about the dearth of inspiration in rock music, and how it can be a bit homogenized, because I think rock radio can be seen as a homogenous sound, going for a certain thing, whereas everyone else in the pop world can be far more experimental and way out there. And to me it's just as simple as trying to stay interesting to ourselves, and create excitement like that."

Tracklist
01. Bush - Heavy Is The Ocean
02. Bush - Slow Me
03. Bush - More Than Machines
04. Bush - May Your Love Be Pure
05. Bush - Shark Bite
06. Bush - Human Sand
07. Bush - Kiss Me I'm Dead
08. Bush - Identity
09. Bush - Creatures Of The Fire
10. Bush - Judas Is A Riot
11. Bush - Gunfight
12. Bush - 1000 Years
13. Bush - All Things Must Change
14. Bush, Amy Lee - 1000 Years (with Amy Lee)
15. Bush - Miracle
16. Bush - More Than Machines (Live In Nashville)
17. Bush - Heavy Is The Ocean (Live In Nashville)