Q36

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Q36
Q36 cover
Studio album by The Rentals
Released June 26, 2020
Recorded Alphaville Studios, Los Angeles, CA; Battle Born Studios, Las Vegas, NV
Genre Alternative rock
Length 01:08:11
Producer(s) Matt Sharp & The Rentals
The Rentals chronology
Lost in Alphaville
(2014)		 Q36
(2020)
Singles from Q36
  1. "Spaceships"
    Released: November 5, 2019
  2. "Forgotten Astronaut"
    Released: November 19, 2019
  3. "9th Configuration"
    Released: December 3, 2019
  4. "Breaking and Breaking and Breaking"
    Released: December 17, 2019
  5. "Invasion Night"
    Released: December 31, 2019
  6. "Nowhere Girl"
    Released: January 14, 2020
  7. "Great Big Blue"
    Released: January 28, 2020
  8. "Above This Broken World"
    Released: February 11, 2020
  9. "Teen Beat Cosmonaut"
    Released: February 25, 2020
  10. "Another World"
    Released: March 10, 2020
  11. "Conspiracy"
    Released: April 14, 2020
  12. "Elon Musk Is Making Me Sad"
    Released: April 28, 2020
  13. "Information (and the Island in the Sky)"
    Released: May 12, 2020
  14. "Machine Love"
    Released: May 26, 2020
  15. "Goodbye, Steve"
    Released: June 9, 2020
  16. "Shake Your Diamonds"
    Released: June 23, 2020

Q36 is the fourth studio album by the Rentals. The album's release stretched from November 5, 2019 to June 26, 2020, as its tracks were released one-by-one at a pace of roughly two each month. Matt Sharp wrote the album and receives a producing credit. He worked with a core band consisting of Nick Zinner of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, mixer/engineer Dave Fridmann, and drummer Ronnie Vannucci of The Killers. The lyrics on Q36 incorporate science fiction themes, including the lead single "Elon Musk is Making Me Sad," which, as of June 2023, is the band's second-most streamed on Spotify behind "Friends of P." "Elon Musk is Making Me Sad" makes reference to a "Q score", which may be the origin of the album's title.

Overview

The Rentals' fourth album was announced alongside the release of the single "Elon Musk Is Making Me Sad" on October 4, 2017.[1] Rentals frontman Matt Sharp tweeted about the album's production at various points throughout 2018, indicating that the album would be engineered by Dave Fridmann, who had previously engineered Weezer's Pinkerton.[2] On December 20 of 2018, Sharp tweeted that the mastering had been finished at Sterling Sound in Nashville, Tennessee. [3]

In an interview with The Interplanetary Podcast, Sharp explained that he started forming the album by starting with 50 song ideas.[4] Sharp said that his one rule for these new songs was that nothing could be autobiographical, explaining that he had grown bored of writing about his own lived experiences and perspective. Sharp also mentioned that he first became acquainted with guitarist Nick Zinner at a New Years party shortly after Zinner's band the Yeah Yeah Yeahs had performed a live cover of the Rentals song "The Love I'm Searching For" in 2006. Years later, Sharp contacted Zinner again and convinced him to work on the album. Sharp and Zinner worked on the songs independently in their own respective home studios. According to Sharp, engineer Dave Fridmann agreed to work on the album immediately after Sharp pitched the idea of a space-themed album featuring Zinner.

The album's title was formally unveiled on November 5, 2019 alongside the new single "Spaceships", with pre-orders made available via the band's Bandcamp page. The next single, "Forgotten Astronaut", was unveiled on November 20, 2019, with each subsequent "single" released every other week with an accompanying limited-run clothing/merchandise item designed by illustrator and print designer Ivan Minsloff. On March 24, 2020, the album's physical release and eleventh single were postponed due to the 2019 coronavirus (COVID-19).[5]

During the course of the album's release cycle, the band created challenges for fans in conjunction with the collaborative media platform HitRecord.[6]

On March 31, 2020, a digital EP for the song "Forgotten Astronaut" was released on Spotify and Bandcamp.

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Matt Sharp. 

No. Title Length
1. "Shake Your Diamonds"   4:17
2. "Nowhere Girl"   4:30
3. "9th Configuration"   5:59
4. "Teen Beat Cosmonaut"   3:12
5. "Above This Broken World"   5:11
6. "Forgotten Astronaut"   4:43
7. "Conspiracy"   4:26
8. "Breaking and Breaking and Breaking"   3:04
9. "Great Big Blue"   3:25
10. "Information (and the Island in the Sky)"   4:31
11. "Spaceships"   4:18
12. "Goodbye, Steve"   2:18
13. "Invasion Night"   4:07
14. "Another World"   3:20
15. "Machine Love"   3:44
16. "Elon Musk Is Making Me Sad"   6:56
Total length:
 1:08:11

Personnel

Z36

On January 7, 2020, Matt Sharp announced via social media[7] that he would be remixing a series of songs from Q36 and releasing them under the title Z36, beginning with the track "Invasion Night". Said Sharp, "The remixes have a more atmospheric approach that focus primarily on Nick Zinner’s guitars and my synthesizers."

  1. "Invasion Night"
  2. "Great Big Blue"
  3. "Another World"
  4. "Forgotten Astronaut"
  5. "Information (and the Island in the Sky)"
  6. "Shake Your Diamonds"

See also

External links

References

  1. ↑ The Rentals. Tumblr. 4 October 2017. Archived by Wayback Machine 17 May 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190517053613/https://therentalsmusic.tumblr.com/
  2. ↑ @_mattsharp "true story: fridmann’s mixing console has been searching for signs of extraterrestrial life, the entire time we’ve been working on @therentals new album ®️📡✨" Twitter. 1 October 2018. https://twitter.com/_mattsharp/status/1046791338455441414
  3. ↑ @_mattsharp "the final frontier, last day @sterlingsound" Twitter. 20 December 2018. https://twitter.com/_mattsharp/status/1075820765260472320
  4. ↑ Russell, Matt. "#167 - Matt Sharp - Q36" The Interplanetary Podcast. 9 January 2020. https://www.interplanetary.org.uk/post/167-matt-sharp-q36
  5. ↑ @_mattsharp "Good People, a quick update: To give a little extra space and breathing room, during these crazy times, to our partners that make @therentals Q36 possible, we are moving everything back two weeks. ®️ next single will come out on April 7 and the vinyl shipping date is now June 16." Twitter. 24 March 2020. https://twitter.com/_mattsharp/status/1242491986218606593
  6. ↑ "Q36 - The Rentals" HITRECORD. https://hitrecord.org/productions/4013371
  7. ↑ @_mattsharp "I’m remixing a series of songs from @therentals Q36 album. The remixes have a more atmospheric approach that focus primarily on Nick Zinner’s guitars and my synthesizers. I’m filing them all under the title “Z36.” Here’s the Z36 ®️EMIX for INVASION NIGHT:" Twitter 7 January 2020. https://twitter.com/_mattsharp/status/1214572663382757376
Rentals DiscographyEdit this template
Studio LPs: Return of the Rentals | Seven More Minutes | Lost in Alphaville | Q36
EPs: The Last Little Life EP | Forgotten Astronaut Extended Play Multimedia projects: Songs About Time
Compilations: Live in Japan | Excellent Stocking Stuffer | For the Ladies | Little Russell Street Soundtracks: The Midnight Society Soundtrack
Matt Sharp solo work: Puckett's Versus the Country Boy | Matt Sharp | Matt Sharp / Rivers Cuomo album (Unreleased/unfinished)
Other: Resilience | List of Matt Sharp songs | List of Rentals concerts | Lost Out in the Machinery - Songs of the Rentals
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