{"id":1767184,"date":"2026-02-11T15:58:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T12:58:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1767184"},"modified":"2026-02-11T15:58:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T12:58:19","slug":"ekko-astral-announce-sophomore-album-share-new-song","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1767184","title":{"rendered":"Ekko Astral Announce Sophomore Album, Share New Song"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/media.pitchfork.com\/photos\/698ca289fb63e0c495d4b993\/16:9\/w_1280,c_limit\/Ekko%20Astral%20press%20photo%20-%20credit%20-%20Alec%20Pugliese.JPG”]<\/p>\n

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News<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Ekko Astral Announce Sophomore Album, Share New Song<\/h1>\n
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The DC punks are previewing The Beltway Is Burning<\/em> with \u201cLil Xan Goes to Washington\u201d<\/div>\n
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By <\/span>Nina Corcoran<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

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Ekko Astral, photo by Alec Pugliese<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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DC punks Ekko Astral are ready to return with their sophomore album. Their new LP, dubbed The Beltway Is Burning<\/em>, comes out April 22 via Topshelf. Leading the record is the single \u201cLil Xan Goes to Washington,\u201d in which the titular character lobbies for addiction assistance legislation in Washington, D.C., only to succumb to K Street and become a sellout himself. Give the song a listen below, and check out its Alec Puglies-directed music video.<\/p>\n

Recorded immediately after the 2024 U.S. election, Ekko Astral\u2019s second album was written as a \u201creal-time historical document in the form of a dark comedy,\u201d according to a press release. Each song on The Beltway Is Burning<\/em> is a vignette in the band\u2019s fictionalized version of the Beltway, the area around I-495, where Adam Sandler is a godlike president and the DMV has become a demilitarized zone.<\/p>\n

The Beltway Is Burning<\/em> follows Ekko Astral\u2019s debut album, 2024\u2019s Pink Balloons.<\/em> The new LP is 12 tracks long and boasts two guest features: Pop Music Fever Dream and Big Girl. It also includes the band\u2019s searing single from last fall, \u201cHorseglue,\u201d which they called \u201ca screeching call for moral clarity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read about Pink Balloons<\/em> at No. 1 in The 30 Best Rock Albums of 2024.<\/p>\n

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The Beltway Is Burning<\/em>:<\/strong><\/p>\n

01 Body Generation
02 Lil Xan Goes to Washington
03 Horseglue
04 Beltway [ft. Pop Music Fever Dream]
05 WMATA
06 This Is Not a Call to Action But a Lamentation on the Situation at Hand (Or, Capital Riot)
07 Elegy for a System [ft. Big Girl]
08 Lovesick American Romance
09 Dude With Guitars
10 Sandler \u201936
11 Blood Mountain
12 Comet Ping Pong<\/p>\n

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Ekko Astral: The Beltway Is Burning<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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$29.99<\/span> at Rough Trade<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

[analyse_source url=”http:\/\/pitchfork.com\/news\/ekko-astral-announce-sophomore-album-share-new-song\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/media.pitchfork.com\/photos\/698ca289fb63e0c495d4b993\/16:9\/w_1280,c_limit\/Ekko%20Astral%20press%20photo%20-%20credit%20-%20Alec%20Pugliese.JPG”] News Ekko Astral Announce Sophomore Album, Share New Song The DC punks are previewing The Beltway Is Burning with \u201cLil Xan Goes to Washington\u201d By Nina Corcoran February 11, 2026 Ekko Astral, photo by Alec Pugliese DC punks Ekko Astral are ready to return with their sophomore album. Their new LP, dubbed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,54],"class_list":["post-1767184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-pitchfork-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1767184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1767184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1767184\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1767184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1767184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1767184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}