Semisonic

Launched following the dissolution of influential Twin Cities band Trip Shakespeare, Semisonic first emerged to widespread acclaim with their 1996 debut, Great Divide. While the album was a critical hit (Rolling Stone called it “a record of simple but sparkling modern pop, rattling with power-trio vitality”), the group’s commercial breakthrough didn’t arrive until the 1998 release of their sophomore album, Feeling Strangely Fine, which went platinum on the strength of its chart-topping lead single, “Closing Time.” Nominated for a GRAMMY, the track was a radio juggernaut that would go on to land in countless film and television soundtracks and come to define the sound of an entire decade of rock and roll. Years of gritting it out on the road eventually took its toll on the band, though, and after releasing one more album in 2001, the trio decided to part ways for an amicable but indefinite hiatus. Though Semisonic would reunite sporadically through the years for one-offs and charity shows, Wilson wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to write for the band again until a creative breakthrough led him to You’re Not Alone. Released in 2020, the five-track EP brought the band back into the studio for the first time in two decades and earned glowing reviews from Rolling Stone, SPIN, Stereogum, and more.

Semisonic returned this year with “Don’t Give Up Yet,” their first new single release following their critically acclaimed 2023 LP Little Bit of Sun, which marked their first studio album in more than 20 years. The song is the first in a series of singles the band will be releasing over the next year. “Don’t Give Up Yet” is a deeply personal message of hope that Dan Wilson began writing for a friend in crisis that expanded into a universal reminder to hold onto hope and remember the fight is far from over.

About the song, Dan Wilson explains, “I started writing ‘Don’t Give Up Yet’ for a friend of mine who was going through a terrible chapter. I wanted to tell him he still had time and there still was hope. When I got to the second verse, I realized the song was about something else, too – the fight against the dark philosophy that has stormed our country, our institutions, our freedom, our peace. That’s when the line ‘A king on a throne, Tyrannicus Rex,’ suddenly arrived and my band had a very different song on our hands.

My friends have asked me why it’s ‘Don’t Give Up YET,’ rather than simply ‘Don’t Give Up.’ I tell them that the ‘yet’ means this: ‘Keep trying - don’t lose heart - you’re so close! Keep your hopes alive, because you’re going to make things better in the end. As they say in baseball, it’s not over yet. So don’t give up yet.’ My wish is that someone who hears the song will take heart and remember that there is still time and that if they keep trying, they’re going to change the world.”