These Are The Nights: Stream the Latest Singles

Mr. Blue

Boston ska, rocksteady & soul band The New Limits have released the second single, “Mr. Blue,” from their upcoming album These Are The Nights. Mr Blue marries ragtime/honky tonk verses with uptempo punk choruses in a song that details a chance encounter at a Vegas bar with an interesting stranger. Talking about the song’s themes, songwriter Julia Wolfe explained, “This is a song about the purely unexpected, the adventures you coincide with during travels, the memories you make of people who become lost to you. This song is about the spontaneity of becoming a character in someone else’s story, that you’d surely miss if you didn’t look up from time to time.”

These Are The Nights is out September 19th on Chicago’s Jump Up Records. The album will be the band’s second full-length release, and the first multi-song project since their self-titled album from 2017. Building on the sounds of the several singles released in 2024, These Are The Nights contains the most stylistically diverse set of songs the band has released, with songwriting duties divided equally between guitarist Jacob Wake Up!, Singer/Pianist Julia Wolfe, and Alto Saxophonist Miles B Robinson.

Within the album’s 12 tracks, the band weaves between traditional ska grooves, jaunty ragtime, and simmering Motown with ease. Describing the album’s stylistic diversions, Miles B Robinson remarks that “we’ve always been under the ska umbrella, but even before this, we were not penned in to a particular sound. But the thing about These are the Nights that is interesting to me is that there’s still new territory.”

“Sometimes we become so immersed in the daily dread that we forget we’re crafting the good old days at the same time”, says vocalist Julia Wolfe, further explaining the album’s themes. “This album is a reminder that surrounding yourself in love, fighting for what matters most, staying whimsical in a dreary world, seeing others through their perspective instead of yours – these make up our shared humanity.”

Physical editions of These Are The Nights, in vinyl format, will be distributed by Chicago’s famed Jump Up Records. The band has also announced an album release show on September 26th at Faces Brewing Co. in Malden, MA, with support from Eight Foot Manchild and Futon Lasagna.

These are the Nights

“These Are The Nights” is a rousing call for living in the moment and appreciating the day-to-day experience of being in a band. The song has a special significance within the band, as it has music written around lyrics from the band’s former singer/trumpet player Matty C. “‘These Are The Nights’ was one of the last songs I wrote with Matty” says primary song-writer Jacob Wake Up. “He presented me with this honest and immediately relatable story of touring. The music came to me very quickly as I tried to channel that sense of the unknown, the highs and lows of being on the road.” The music arrangement was then completed by trumpet player Michaela Olson who brought the song to the finish line with memorable horn parts that tied the song together.

With the band’s refreshed 7 member line-up, “These Are The Nights” is the perfect anthem for those with a love of exploration, coming from an album by a band looking forward to new horizons. While the song tells stories of being in a band, anyone with a love for the open road can see themselves in it.

The LP of the same title will be released on September 19 on Jump Up Records.

Our trumpet player Michaela arranged the horns for our new single “These Are The Nights!” Here she shares her thoughts on the new single, as well as being a member of The New Limits.