Leisure

Auckland’s soul-electronic collective LEISURE announces their new studio album, Welcome To The Mood, will be released on September 12, 2025. For their fifth studio album, the genre-defying sextet refines their soulful, slow-burning ethos into a radiant new chapter — one rooted in togetherness, creative freedom, and the lived experience of a band evolving with authentic purpose. They also embraced a more organic, live-recording approach on Welcome To The Mood. The group explains, “Off the back of touring the last album, we had played more shows than ever and wanted to bring more of the live element into the process, so we didn’t use drum breaks and loops as much as previous records and tracked live.” They continued expanding their sound by bringing in specialist musicians — string sections, brass, pianos, and backing vocalists — pushing the sonic possibilities beyond their individual skill sets. Yet at its core, the album remains deeply personal. Written in remote hideaways, the songs carry the tranquility of escape while capturing a newfound confidence in emotional vulnerability.

Thematically, Welcome To The Mood is a rich sonic auditory tapestry woven with threads of authenticity, humanity, and creative celebration. Lyrically, the album explores universal experiences — love, loss, connection, hope, and purpose — drawn from the everyday yet rendered in LEISURE’s distinct palette of lush tones and laid-back groove. Tracks are anchored in realness but elevated by a sonic landscape that feels simultaneously nostalgic and futuristic, mirroring the ethos of Frank Lloyd Wright, whose Taliesin West provided literal and symbolic inspiration during the album’s visual journey.

On Friday, they shared a live video for the new single, “Missing You,” which was filmed at the architectural landmark.  By choosing Taliesin West as a backdrop, LEISURE pays homage to Wright’s architectural genius and further establishes their vision that art, whether through architecture or sound, plays a vital role in enriching everyday life. The band adds, “It’s incredible how even in 2025 the spaces Frank Lloyd Wright built in 1937 still feel futuristic and nostalgic at the same time, this is a goal for our music as well. His inspiration to build spaces for creativity and connection is also something we share.”