Spread Joy return with III, their first album in four years

Spread Joy released III on September 4, 2026, their third album and first in four years. It is out now, with the band pointing listeners toward the stream above.

The Chicago group, called the city's tightest art punks, has four members: singer Briana Hernandez, guitarist Raidy Hodges, drummer Tyler Bixby, and bassist Nick Beaudoin, formerly of Negative Scanner. The record leans hard into tempo changes, odd time signatures, and rhythms the last two albums did not attempt. Hernandez's vocals get theatrical on "Abolish Chance," where she drops both a facetious British accent and a baby voice.

The band filed III under a simple banner: a "full-bodymind workout," their words. They sit in the contemporary egg punk scene with Snooper, Prison Affair, and CCTV, a cohort of scrappy, hooky, short-fuse bands.

No tour dates are announced yet. The band says to keep an eye out for shows in Chicago and beyond.