Following up their well-received 2025 album Whispers in the Speech Machine, The Laughing Chimes’ new collection Behind Your Blue Fields spotlights a fascinating transitional period for the band during the creation of Whispers…, as the band expanded their pastoral, paisley jangle into darker, post-punk tinged territory. The 13 demos (and some nifty hidden bonus tracks) here present an alternate direction for the group and an alternative vision for their second album, and as such are a most welcome addition to the Laughing Chimes catalog.
The band explains further:
The concept of a “wow unreleased Chimes demo compilation!” developed quickly in the wake of a lo fi rock resurgence among our peers (Good Flying Birds, Sharp Pins, Horsegirl, Lifeguard, and Little Chair). I had dusted off my Tascam 4-track a few months ago and subsequently rediscovered a scattered assortment of demos that Laughing Chimes had recorded over the last several years. My original plan was to throw an EP’s worth of songs up on Bandcamp, but as I continued to dig through my desk drawer of old tapes, I suddenly amassed a collection of 13-ish discarded tracks.
Many of the songs on this compilation (“King of Birds,” “Zephyr,” “It’s 3 Until It’s 4,” and “Behind Your Blue Fields” to name a few) were written with a Laughing Chimes record in mind but were shelved after embracing the decision to “go goth” on our second album. In the summer of 2022, we were dubbing this sunnier version of our sophomore record Behind Your Blue Fields and the tracklist also included songs off Zoo Avenue. By August of 2023, the album had shifted to feature early recordings of “High Beams,” “Fluorescent Minds,” and “He Never Finished the Thought,” which were tracked in our practice space. However, once we had our moody post-punk shake-up, only “Mudhouse Mansion” escaped the purge, with the rest of the songs being reworked for Whispers in the Speech Machine.
Other tracks on this compilation date even earlier than all of this, with “Small Town Racecars” being one of the first songs I wrote for Laughing Chimes (although Quinn and I re-tracked it for this tape). On the flip side, “Trapeze Baby” and “Your Voice Sounds So Strange” were considered for a third record, but ultimately felt too similar to previous songs we’d written for Whispers. Even though these demos/songs got the boot, it’s great to share them with you now as a glimpse into a “what could have been” second album that never fully came to fruition.
TOUR DATES
April 25 @ The Union, Athens, OH
May 21 @ Spacebar, Columbus, OH
May 22 @ Feel It Records, Cincinnati, OH
May 23 @ Lowdown, Chicago, IL
June 4 @ The FunHouse, Pittsburgh, PA
June 5 @ Minimart, Philadelphia, PA
June 6 @ Tecumseh Theater, Shawnee, OH
The Laughing Chimes
Behind Your Blue Fields
(Slumberland)
Street Date: May 22, 2026
Formats: Cassette / Digital
Pre-order it HERE
Track Listing:
02 Trapeze Baby
03 Pharmacies
04 Behind Your Blue Fields
05 Newshound Pageants
06 Seasons
07 Zephyr
08 Lunchbox in Stereo
09 It’s 3 Until It’s 4
10 Your Voice Sounds So Strange
11 King of Birds
12 On An Electric Taxi Cab
13 If I Could Land Your Heart
14 Behind Your Blue Fields [4-track Demo] 15 Behind Your Blue Fields [8-track Demo] 16 Cats Go Car Watching [8-track Demo] 17 He Never Finished the Thought [4-track]
THE LAUGHING CHIMES LINKS: