Silverstein’s A Shipwreck in the Sand, the band’s fourth studio album, is set to receive a vinyl reissue available in several color exclusives on June 28, courtesy of Craft Recordings.
The project was originally released in March 2009 via Victory Records (the band’s last studio album on the label). This is also the first album to feature future guitarist Paul Marc Rousseau, and features a heavier sound than their previous releases.
The project is highlighted by a conceptual storyline, which tells the tale of a vessel that sets sail to find resources and begin a new world, but when no new land is to be found, the crew revolts against their captain. The record is divided into four chapters: It Burns Within Us All (tracks 1–3), Liars, Cheaters and Thieves (tracks 4–7), Fight Fire with Fire (tracks 8–10), and Death and Taxes (tracks 11–14).
When asked about the album, Shane Told stated the following in the Decade (Live at the El Mocambo DVD): “The concept of the record The Shipwreck In The Sand is complicated, and there’s a lot of stuff going on. And I like that about it, that it is not obvious and that a lot of people can take something out of it that’s their own. The reason I wanted to do a concept record was because of the way the world is right now, with the economy being messed up, people losing jobs and families losing their life savings, and not knowing what they are going to do in the future.
“Ten years ago, everything was going so well, people were not as concerned and now it’s a really scary time. There’s a lot of underlying political issues within the record about what governments all over the world are spending money on, what their focus is on. There’s also a lot of social issues I wanted to talk about as well; people that watch reality TV and think Cribs is the way their house needs to look or they need to look like people from a Cosmopolitan magazine.
“There’s just so many problems that face society right now and I really wanted to tackle them all. Each song just dives into a different issue; you know the issue of health care right now in America, and how it’s so divided when it should be so obvious.”
Pre-order A Shipwreck in the Sand (15th Anniversary Reissue).