I WAS A KING return with 'Dust Bunnies' and announce tenth album
Dreamy, cult popgaze trio, I Was A King, announce their tenth album, produced by Bill Ryder-Jones, with glistening, bittersweet single…
Dust Bunnies
“Melancholy power-pop at its finest” – Pitchfork
“All swelling valves and sugary melodies” – CLASH
“Infused with pop melodies galore” – Pop Matters
I Was A King – Dust Bunnies
From the new album Until The End – Released Fri 17 October 2025
Hype City Music via Redeye Distribution
www.hypecitymusic.com
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Some goodbyes are more beautiful than sad, yet Norway’s long-standing agents of harmony-laden, jangle-rich, sun-kissed psych-pop, I Was A King manage to combine amidst the mid-summer heartbreak of their new single, Dust Bunnies – OUT NOW. Announcing that they are to add an tenth album of philosophical lyricism and easy-going, delicately-mined melody to their remarkable back catalogue, the band’s latest, Bill Ryder-Jones-produced album, Until The End, is set for release on Fri 17 October 2025 on Hype City.
Described by the band as an album of tales “of sleepless nights and longing, love, loss and paranoia, woven into seemingly ordinary lives”, the album follows not only their 2022 album, Follow Me Home, but a career-spanning ‘Best of…’ collection, Best Wishes - A Shortcut to I Was a King, released in March this year. Concluding recording sessions at Ryder-Jones’ YAWN Studios around the same time, the release of Dust Bunnies five months later hints a new album of warmth and generous emotional honesty, customary to the band’s long-established ethos.
Formed around the artistic nucleus of renowned Norwegian indie-folk artist, Anne Lise Frøkedal and singer, co-songwriter and producer, Frode Strømstad, alongside multi-instrumentalist, Ole Reidar Gudmestad, I Was A King have regularly pulled in comparisons to The Byrds, Big Star, Teenage Fanclub, Beachwood Sparks and Dinosaur Jr. whilst tearing pages from a copybook that is all their own. Dust Bunnies’ sense of imminent romantic loss, layered over richly orchestrated strings arranged on top of opulent vocal harmonies, presents the cult band’s sustained creative ambition, 18 years after their debut album, as a hazy, easy-going gift of sun-specked song to their fans at home in Scandinavia, as well as their discerning fanbase in the US and UK.
The band says of the album: “Until the End is a collection of stories from the fickle nest we call home. An ending is also the beginning of something new. Cardboard boxes are opened and closed. The dust behind the sofa comes into the light, and life’s milestones, both small and significant, unfold.”
With album photography provided by Donald Milne, the Scottish artist responsible for the iconic sleeve of Pulp’s A Different Class, the band’s reach into British popular culture continues having previously collaborated with both Norman Blake and Robyn Hitchcock across previous I Was A King albums and singles.
Released on multiple formats, including vinyl, CD and digital, I Was A King have confirmed the track-listing for Until The End as follows:
1. Snow on the Transmission Tower
2. Dust Bunnies
3. Sleepless Nights
4. November
5. Nowhere Near
6. Pool Painted Black
7. Falling
8. The Birthday Song
9. House Warming
10. Still Water
11. Until The End
The album is I Was A King’s tenth album, having emerged with their 2007 debut, Losing Something Good For Something Better, quickly following up with a 2009 self-titled album, recorded in Brooklyn with contributions from Sufjan Stevens. Frøkedal has also released three solo albums since 2018 and Strømstad has released two albums with The No Ones, a group that also features Peter Buck and Scott McCaughey of R.E.M.
Until The End also features the Liverpool-based drummer Joshua McCartney, who the duo met on tour with Kelley Stoltz.
For pre-order information, upcoming releases and to be the first to know about any live dates, connect with I Was A King and Hype City online via:
https://www.instagram.com/iwasakingband
https://www.facebook.com/iwasaking
http://www.hypecitymusic.bsky.social
https://www.instagram.com/hypecitymusicno
https://www.facebook.com/people/Hype-City-Music/61569419610568
