Gang of Youths return with new single "Things Take Time"

Gang of Youths released "Things Take Time" on Tuesday, its first new single in four years, following a triumphant return to the stage earlier this month with a Sydney Opera House residency, SPIN reported. Written by David Le'aupepe, Tom Hobden, Donnie Borzestowski and Jung Kim, the song retains the band's cinematic sweep while embracing something simpler and more direct than much of its earlier catalog.

The band describes the track as being about "the endless loop of birth, growth, death and rebirth which encases all matter and energy." That idea grew out of a far less grandiose starting point: Kim jokingly told Le'aupepe to write a song about plants while the two sat in a backyard together. Le'aupepe eventually connected the joke to band members settling into homes, starting families and watching their own gardens grow, a shift SPIN described as a surprisingly radical place for a band historically prone to emotional maximalism.

Speaking to The Guardian, Le'aupepe said the song is ultimately about "things growing and dying, but also what happens if somebody's just overwhelmingly OK," a notable shift after years of songs weighted with existential meaning.

He said he wanted to write an actual song rather than what he jokingly called "moods with a bunch of moody lyrics," condensing his ideas into something closer to a three-minute pop tune.

Hobden, who recorded the track in his backyard studio in London, called it "an exercise in restraint," with the band consciously leaving room for Le'aupepe's voice rather than piling on the layers. Le'aupepe reportedly pursued the vocal take he wanted across 389 attempts.

Gang of Youths played "Things Take Time" alongside three other new songs, "Major Arcana," "Riverlands" and "YeYu," during their Sydney shows, their first Australian performances in four years. The rock band will next play the UK's All Points East on August 30 before four headline dates across Europe in November and December.