The Academic set January for their third album
Recorded at Hellfire Studios in Dublin with Pete Robertson, I'm Not Crying, You Are arrives on 22 January and is previewed by the single 'Keeping Up Appearances'.
The Academic announced their third studio album on 12 October, setting I'm Not Crying, You Are for release on Friday 22 January 2027. The Irish indie-rock band present the record as a deliberate move closer to the albums that first made them fall in love with music, while retaining the energy and immediacy associated with their work.
The new set follows the recent single 'Keeping Up Appearances' and was recorded at Hellfire Studios in Dublin with producer Pete Robertson. The record is a widescreen, deeply melodic album built around big melodies, sharp emotional detail and a clear love of arrangement. The ambition is expansion rather than reinvention: songwriting is pushed further out, without discarding the drive that has carried the band this far.
Closer to the records that started it
Frontman Craig Fitzgerald said the group wanted to get nearer to the albums that first hooked them. The influences named are the Beatles, Dylan and Lou Reed — held as a compass, not a costume. The record is not framed as a collection of those artists in miniature. The point, as he put it, is melody at full stretch, emotional detail kept sharp, and arrangement treated as part of the writing rather than an afterthought.
That is a useful way to read a third album. Fitzgerald’s remarks place I'm Not Crying, You Are on the second path: wider melodic ground, more care in how the songs are built, still recognisably the same band at full tilt. Recording in Dublin keeps the work close to home. Hellfire Studios is a known stop on the Irish circuit, and Robertson’s role gives the sessions a defined production partnership rather than a vague studio credit.
'Keeping Up Appearances' is the first public signal of that direction. It sits ahead of the January release as the track that introduces the new writing before the full album arrives. No further track list, label line or tour plan was included with the announcement, so the single and the album title carry the message for now. The title itself is wry and direct — a small human shrug that fits a record sold on emotional detail as much as on big choruses.
What January will settle
For listeners who already know The Academic, the stake is simple. Does the widescreen, arrangement-led approach land as a natural widening of their indie-rock sound, or does it pull them somewhere less immediate? The band’s own framing answers that in advance: they want the scale and the craft of the records they grew up on, without sounding like a tribute to them, and without losing the snap that made the earlier work travel. That is a high bar, and it is also a clear one.
I'm Not Crying, You Are comes out on 22 January 2027. Until then 'Keeping Up Appearances' is the door into the new material, and the Dublin sessions with Robertson remain the documented centre of how the album was made. What the full track list holds, and whether live dates follow the record into the spring, has not yet been said. The third album is on the calendar; the rest will arrive with it, or after it.
The new set follows the recent single 'Keeping Up Appearances' and was recorded at Hellfire Studios in Dublin with producer Pete Robertson. The record is a widescreen, deeply melodic album built around big melodies, sharp emotional detail and a clear love of arrangement. The ambition is expansion rather than reinvention: songwriting is pushed further out, without discarding the drive that has carried the band this far.
Closer to the records that started it
Frontman Craig Fitzgerald said the group wanted to get nearer to the albums that first hooked them. The influences named are the Beatles, Dylan and Lou Reed — held as a compass, not a costume. The record is not framed as a collection of those artists in miniature. The point, as he put it, is melody at full stretch, emotional detail kept sharp, and arrangement treated as part of the writing rather than an afterthought.
That is a useful way to read a third album. Fitzgerald’s remarks place I'm Not Crying, You Are on the second path: wider melodic ground, more care in how the songs are built, still recognisably the same band at full tilt. Recording in Dublin keeps the work close to home. Hellfire Studios is a known stop on the Irish circuit, and Robertson’s role gives the sessions a defined production partnership rather than a vague studio credit.
'Keeping Up Appearances' is the first public signal of that direction. It sits ahead of the January release as the track that introduces the new writing before the full album arrives. No further track list, label line or tour plan was included with the announcement, so the single and the album title carry the message for now. The title itself is wry and direct — a small human shrug that fits a record sold on emotional detail as much as on big choruses.
What January will settle
For listeners who already know The Academic, the stake is simple. Does the widescreen, arrangement-led approach land as a natural widening of their indie-rock sound, or does it pull them somewhere less immediate? The band’s own framing answers that in advance: they want the scale and the craft of the records they grew up on, without sounding like a tribute to them, and without losing the snap that made the earlier work travel. That is a high bar, and it is also a clear one.
I'm Not Crying, You Are comes out on 22 January 2027. Until then 'Keeping Up Appearances' is the door into the new material, and the Dublin sessions with Robertson remain the documented centre of how the album was made. What the full track list holds, and whether live dates follow the record into the spring, has not yet been said. The third album is on the calendar; the rest will arrive with it, or after it.
Watch the videoKeeping Up Appearances