(BHM) Goose surprise-released its fifth studio album, Chain Yer Dragon, earlier today. Jimmy Fallon announced the news on The Tonight Show before the band went on to world premiere its brand-new song, "Madalena."
"Madalena" opens sparsely - just a voice and a piano ringing out into the ether. The ballad begins as a road-weary confessional to a mysterious woman who feels tragically out of reach. Lead singer, guitarist Rick Mitarotonda's voice soars over Peter Anspach's swelling keyboard flourishes, unfurling the story of a restless soul caught between a real world and a dream, and perhaps not knowing which is which. The only constant, it seems, is a sense of longing.
As always, reality intervenes, and the dreamlike meditation of the song's narrator gives way to a building rhythm. The band joins in on the song with fuzzed guitar licks, Trevor Weekz's elastic basslines, and Cotter Ellis's propulsive drum fills. In an instant, we're transported someplace timeless, enmeshed in the world of riverside barrooms and all-night seances that raise the dead. "Madelena" throws down, cresting anthemically with its full, resounding chorus. But the joy of the melody never fully resolves the lyrical tension. The world beats on ceaselessly, a new dawn breaks, all the while there is yearning for the stillness, to stay dreaming just a little longer.
"'Madalena' expanded on the world of Chain Yer Dragon in a beautiful way to us, offering a side to the album's story that wasn't quite present before," says Mitarotonda. "It felt fresh and exciting, and yet in a strange way like it's been there from the beginning."
Goose's fifth studio album and second full-length of 2025, Chain Yer Dragon (No Coincidence Records), was produced by D. James Goodwin and comes out a mere four months after the band's acclaimed LP, Everything Must Go. The album welcomes listeners into a rich, fully-realized world of music and familiar characters, beckoning them to follow the lights and sounds through dingy barrooms and late nights on the road that dissolve into the clarity of a fresh dawn. Chain Yer Dragon showcases Goose's versatility, laying down 70's-infused rock songs that feel lived-in and that come to life through improvisation. Playing with form, Chain Yer Dragon is buoyed by a natural production style that once again puts the focus on the raw, freewheeling feel of the band's electric live shows.
With tracks that span Goose's musical career, Chain Yer Dragon serves as connective tissue between some of the group's earliest, much-beloved songwriting and its current evolution as a four-piece. Featuring live staples like "Echo of A Rose," "Empress of Organos," "Rockdale," and fan favorites like "Factory Fiction," Chain Yer Dragon embraces the band's origins. The album's opening songs, including completely new tracks "Madalena" and "Royal" among others, flesh out the universe of The Night Rays Band, expanding on ideas first conceived by guitarist and vocalist Rick Mitarotonda and his songwriting partner Matt Campbell back in 2011.
"There's a world-building component that feels like the driving force of this record," Mitarotonda reflects. "Many of these character-driven songs come from a time and place where we were finding our voice musically, and it's been so gratifying to not only revisit it through the lens of who and where we are now, but to expand on it. These songs have been on a journey, and it feels right for them to finally have a home now."
"Chain Yer Dragon is certainly its own world," adds Anspach. "One that has existed for a while, but has grown along the way. I think Everything Must Go was in many ways a broader statement album for the band after three wild years. It kind of symbolized that roller coaster, with many different themes and moments that were born in that pressure cooker.
"Chain Yer Dragon is a special album in that, from front to back, it really showcases the songwriting duo of Rick and Matt. They have such a strong, open relationship when it comes to writing, and it seems to grow with each composition. 'Madalena' was notably the most recent song to be written for this record. I'm in awe of what they are able to create, and I'm stoked to share in the world of Chain Yer Dragon."
Chain Yer Dragon finds Goose at their most essential - a freewheeling journey rich with personalities, vivid locales, and music to get lost in. It propels the band's ever-expanding catalog forward while serving as a reminder that sometimes, the surest way ahead is by embracing the past.
"I'm proud of the journey these songs have been on, and that they're finally being realized on a record that feels in line with the spirit of what they always wanted to be," says Mitarotonda. "It also gave us an opportunity to work on some new ideas that felt like they belonged to the world these songs inhabit, while also adding some new language. I like to think of these things as a landscape, and that together we can move in any direction at any time - embracing and exploring our past and pushing forward to somewhere new."
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