This article has been updated.
Why Don’t We announced Wednesday their sophomore album will be titled The Good Times and the Bad Ones and will drop on Jan. 15, 2021.
“You have to do your best to make something beautiful out of it all, so that's what we did,” read a tweet from the group. "We put everything into this album. We hope it helps you enjoy the good times and push through the bad ones.”
Their first studio album since 2018's 8 Letters marks the beginning of a new chapter for Why Don’t We.
Taking the “boy” out of “boy band," Jonah Marais, Jack Avery, Corbyn Besson, Daniel Seavey and Zach Herron have picked up instruments and grabbed the creative reigns.
“We’re definitely fortunate to be in this spot now and taking control over who we want to be as a band,” Besson told iHeartRadio.ca in September, when the band shared the album’s debut single “Fallin’.”
On Wednesday, the band previewed three additional tracks for insiders, including a harmony-rich ballad, one that's rock-tinged and a song that samples a familiar riff from the '90s.
"WE made this album," tweeted Marais, who said The Good Times and the Bad Ones is a collection of “a lot of very personal stories” and promised fans “you will hear our voices more than ever.”
Herron agreed. “This album means everything to us,” he tweeted. “We’ve taken so much time to write, produce, and perfect this album and we’re beyond excited to finally share it with the world.”
FROM THE ARCHIVES
SEPTEMBER 2017 | Q&A: Why Don’t We
APRIL 2018 | WATCH: Hanging Out With… Why Don’t We
APRIL 2019 | Why Don’t We Keep Going (And Growing)
SEPTEMBER 2020 | Why Don't We Comes Back With A Bang
The Good Times and the Bad Ones is poised to put WDW’s days of singing to tracks firmly behind them – and it should come as no surprise.
Speaking to iHeartRadio.ca in 2017, Seavey said he looks up to the Beatles. “Their songwriting, the amount of songs they wrote, and how good every song was… and just seeing how they stayed together the way they did,” he said. “Yeah, we definitely take notes on the Beatles.”
After three years of extensive touring during which they pumped out singles, EPs and videos, WDW took a step back and went silent.
“We took the first couple of months of this year, after we kind of announced that we were going into a social media darkness, to just focus on ourselves and focus on friends and family and what not,” Besson explained in September. “[It was] definitely much needed … Over this past nine months we’ve all really really grown as people and grown a lot as artists and as songwriters, and Daniel especially as a producer.
“It’s just been good. It’s just felt like this new sort of life has been breathed into us, by ourselves.”
Now WDW fans just have to hold their breaths until Jan. 15 – but there is some good news. "You’re gonna get more new music before the album comes out," promised Marais.