Seminal Boston indie rock band Six Going On Seven continue their long-awaited return with the release of their new single “National Sin,” taken from the trio’s first full-length album in more than twenty years, Human Tears, due out this Friday, January 9 via Spartan Records.
One of the emotional centerpieces of Human Tears, “National Sin” provides a thematic throughline for the album as a whole — grappling with reflection, reckoning, and the blurred space between who we once were and who we’ve become. It’s a song rooted in honesty and lived experience, delivered with the band’s trademark intensity and melodic restraint.
The band describes the track as:
“A tribute to a significant love that honors the time shared while acknowledging the damage done. Never one sided. Never fully over. Never loving quite the same again.”
With “National Sin,” Six Going On Seven reaffirm that their return is not driven by nostalgia, but by purpose — a fully realized statement shaped by decades of life, distance, and creative growth.
About Six Going On Seven & ‘Human Tears’
Human Tears marks a powerful continuation of Six Going On Seven’s legacy, bridging the raw urgency of their early work with the deeper emotional resonance of a band that has lived an entire lifetime since their last release. The album arrives January 9 and is available for pre-order now via Spartan Records — home to artists such as Shiner and 84 Tigers.
“This record came together organically,” says vocalist/bassist Josh English. “We didn’t set out to recreate the past — we wanted to write from where we are now.”
Emerging from the same fertile Boston emo and post-hardcore scene as contemporaries like The Get Up Kids, Karate, and Hot Water Music, Six Going On Seven have long been regarded as a deeply influential “band’s band,” known for emotionally driven songwriting and fiercely committed live performances.
The trio — Josh English (vocals/bass), James Bransford (guitar), and Will Bartlett (drums) — reconnect with that foundation while expanding their sonic palette across eleven new songs steeped in vulnerability, urgency, and hard-earned perspective.
‘Human Tears’ Tracklist
- Visitant
- Jack Jones
- Richie Valens Memorial Hwy
- (To Be) An Island
- Machine + Learning
- Human Tears
- Book of Snakes
- Olusia
- King Tide
- Onda
- National Sin
About Six Going On Seven
Formed in 1994, Six Going On Seven helped define a melodic strain of post-hardcore that would go on to influence generations of emo and indie bands. Their celebrated albums — Self-Made Mess (1997), Heartbreak’s Got Backbeat (1999), and American’t (Or Won’t) (2001) — cemented their reputation for introspective lyricism, dynamic arrangements, and impassioned touring alongside genre-defining peers.