Imaginary Life (10th Anniversary Addition)

***Includes signed postcard from Lauren hand numbered (/100) with 5 additional tracks

10 years ago today, Worriers released our first full-length album “Imaginary Life” on Don Giovanni Records. Four friends and I drove out to Rancho Recordo in Michigan (to this day my favorite studio) and with the help of engineer Marc Jacob Hudson and producer Laura Jane Grace, we recorded 12 songs that I consider to be the foundation of the band. It’s both personal and political, punk but also pop. 

Years later I am still so proud of these songs, of their message, and what they’ve meant to other people. I’m eternally grateful for the connections I’ve formed with friends and fans over the lyrics in songs like “They / Them / Theirs”, “Most Space” or “Yes All Cops.” It feels like a completely separate lifetime from the one I’m living now, but I love what we made and want to celebrate it.

To commemorate this wild anniversary, we’re including five demos with purchase of the album and an edition of 100 signed and numbered postcards for anyone who purchases a physical copy. I found one demo of Chasing that we recorded in Michigan late at night on a cassette deck that for some reason also includes a xylophone. The other four are demos of our first four songs, including “All I Ever Wanted”, the original title for “Jinx”, that were recorded in Brooklyn with the original 3-piece lineup of the band - myself, Justin Sullivan, and Mike Catalano.

The band formed as a side project, just some kids who liked punkrock and the Reigning Sound. It turned into so much more than originally intended. Best case scenario, really. I hope you enjoy hearing where this all started!

-Lauren Denitzio, August 2025

Imaginary Life (2015)

Lauren Denitzio is a maven at writing pop-punk anthems. Playing music for over a decade —beginning with the New Brunswick punk band The Measure [sa]—we had yet to see what Denitzio could accomplish as a sole songwriter until recently. Worriers, the Brooklyn-based band fronted by Denitzio and joined by friends, has released the 7” “Past Lives” on No Idea Records in 2011, the 12” EP “Cruel Optimist” on Don Giovanni Records in 2013, as well as the 7” “Sinead O’Rebellion” on Yo-Yo Records in 2013. This summer, Worriers brings us their finest work to date, with Laura Jane Grace of Against Me! as producer, on their first full-length release Imaginary Life.

Being released by Don Giovanni Records, Imaginary Life is Denitzio’s first time single-handedly generating an entire record’s worth of material. Accompanied by Rachel Rubino (Each Other’s Mothers, Troubled Sleep) and John McLean (Dead Dog, Todd Killingz) on lead guitars, Audrey Zee Whitesides (Mal Blum, Little Waist) on bass, Mike Yannich (The Ergs) on drums, and Lou Hanman (Caves) on backing vocals, Denitzio also asked Laura Jane Grace to produce the record. Working with a woman producer, and someone who came from a DIY background, was crucial to Denitzio. Grace enthusiastically agreed and brought on Marc Hudson, Against Me!’s front-of-house sound person and tour manager, to engineer the record at his studio in Fenton, MI. Grace also took Worriers on a nine-day tour with Against Me! in February to become better acquainted with their sound. In the studio, the group worked meticulously on the tracks—even creating multiple versions of certain songs using Casio beats—to give them time to develop into exactly what they were looking to create.

“I was writing songs that had to do with moments in my life that only happened very briefly, or things that could have happened had things gone a little differently, both in positive and negative ways,” says Denitzio. “I don’t mean regrets, but how life could be entirely different if you make a couple of different choices.”

While Imaginary Life doesn’t stray too far from past Worriers’ releases, it resonates stronger than ever in both sound and message. It flows fittingly backwards, opening with “Jinx,” a softer song that barely hits the one-minute-mark. We are presented with what seems to be a reflection of the current state of life and a fear of change, how goods things have been and wanting to hold onto that. From here, the album cracks wide open into all that ever came before. “Glutton for Distance,” with it’s mathy guitar leads and overflowing lyrics, depicts the desire to sustain a long-distance relationship. In “Chasing,” there is a bit of a departure from what we’ve come to know of Worriers; it’s pop beat is reminiscence of something we’d hear on the radio rather than at a punk show. It’s unexpected but natural, juxtaposed to dark lyrics about giving into unrequited love and carried along by Denitzio’s polished vocals. In the resolute political ballad ”They / Them / Theirs” we are questioned regarding notions of the gender binary and the frustrations that come with it. “Plans” and “Most Space,” two of the catchiest songs on Imaginary Life, are reminders of what tripped us up over Denitzio’s songwriting in the first place—fast and infectious guitars, anthemic lyrics, and unyielding vocals that Worriers never fails to provide.

Tracklist:
1. Jinx
2. Plans
3. Glutton For Distance
4. Parts
5. Unwritten
6. Life During Peacetime
7. Good Luck
8. Yes All Cops
9. They / Them / Theirs
10. Advance Notice
11. Most Space
12. Chasing

Credits:
On this record, Worriers is:
Lauren Denitzio - guitar/vocals
Rachel Rubino - guitar
John McLean - guitar
Audrey Zee Whitesides - bass
Mikey Erg - drums/backing vocals
Lou Hanman - backing vocals

Produced by Laura Jane Grace
Recorded by Marc Jacob Hudson
Artwork by Lauren Denitzio

Release date: August 7, 2025

This is expected to ship on or around September 8, 2025.