By SDCN Staff
San Diego, CA–Chicago alt-rock band The Academy Is…will perform on May 9 at The Observatory North Park in San Diego.
Recently, the band shared their first new album in over 18 years, “Almost There,” available through I Surrender Records. The follow-up to 2008’s “Fast Times at Barrington High,” “Almost There” finds The Academy Is… reflecting on distance, from youth, from expectations, and from the versions of themselves that once felt permanent.
Across 11 new songs, the band revisits the emotional intensity that defined their early work while embracing a more expansive, mature approach to songwriting. The result is a record that feels both familiar and newly sharpened, rooted in pop-punk urgency but unafraid to slow down, open up, and linger in uncertainty.
“Almost Here was the beginning. Almost There is the reflection,” Beckett says. “It’s about checking in with who you thought you’d be twenty years later, seeing what changed, what stuck, and what still feels like home.”
Last month, the band shared “Miracle.” The song sways between intense, driving guitars and reflective moments underlined by glimmering tones. The band throws themselves into the iridescence headfirst, as William Beckett sings, “I need to love again/Turn me on my head/I need to feel the warmth/Tell me I’m not dead.”
The final single from their long-awaited new album arrived earlier this month. Rhythmic and driving, “L Train” captures the intrigue of a big night out in Chicago. The band reminisce on late nights and the emotional chaos that can ensue. Airy riffs bounce through William Beckett’s vocals as the evening carries on, bubbly synths punctuating every moment.
“Almost There” was shaped in studios around a grounded emotional center. Guitarist Mike Carden, bassist Adam Siska, and drummer Andy Mrotek lean into dynamic arrangements that balance punchy immediacy with textured detail — songs often begin with stripped-back melodies before swelling into full-band catharsis, driven by soaring choruses and tightly coiled tension.
After some teasing and speculation, The Academy Is… announced their return last year with the Almost Here 20th Anniversary Tour. Fans were treated to high-energy sets built around the songs that defined the mid-2000s, performed with the intensity and emotion that made the debut record a cult classic. The show blends past and present, weaving in refreshed arrangements, new creative elements, and glimpses of what the band is creating next.
