Six years after the release of their debut album Come In, Weatherday has released their second album Hornet Disaster. A worthy follow-up from Sputnik, the sole person behind the Weatherday project.
Although Sputnik officially began working on the album after releasing Come In, many songs on the project had been in development much longer. For example the initial version of Green Tea Seaweed Sea was created in 2018. The intro of Take Care of Yourself (Paper-Like Nests) even includes a sample from a song created for a scrapped album from 2016-2017.
Sputnik initially teased Hornet Disaster with the release of Luna Amplified. At that time, the album was known only as LP2, with limited information shared over the next two years, aside from occasional hints dropped through social media and Sputnik's Discord server.
During this period, Sputnik released Radar Ballet as part of the Through The Soil compilation, which became the first unofficial single for the album. In 2022, they officially announced the album with the release of Green Tea Seaweed Sea, a song originally planned as a B-side, with the album scheduled for release later that year.
Just a month after this announcement, Sputnik released the collaborative project Weatherglow with Asian Glow, created in just 5 days. Much of Weatherglow's narrative connects to Hornet Disaster, with Look Alive Sunshine being considered a sequel/prequel to the track Take Care of Yourself (Paper-Like Nests). This release was followed a month later by Nostalgia Drive Avatar, another unofficial single released through the Edema Ruh split with Camp Trash, Oolong, and Michael Cera Palin.
While Weatherday releases seemed sparse following Come In, Sputnik was actually quite prolific, releasing material through multiple aliases. The first was Lola's Pocket PC, an electropop side project started in 2018, which released two projects in 2019: Lola's Pocket PC and We Will Always Have. Their second side project, Rana Plastic Bubbles, was used for releasing music annually on April 14, with no restrictions on content. Through this alias, they've created four projects, with the final one initially being withheld and shared only with Discord server members before being publicly released in February 2023. Their third side project is Five Pebbles, a shoegaze alias inspired by the game Rainworld, representing a revival of a scrapped shoegaze EP from 2015-2016. While most of these side projects were paused during the completion of Hornet Disaster, Sputnik has mentioned plans to continue with Lola's Pocket PC and Five Pebbles in the near future.
Despite these side projects, work on Hornet Disaster continued steadily. By late 2022, Sputnik had written over 70 tracks for it, with most of the remaining work involving recording and production. In October 2022, Sputnik revealed parts of the tracklist for Hornet Disaster, posting a list of 21 tracks on their Discord server as part of a Hornet Disaster album survivor. Originally, Sputnik planned for the album to have a runtime of 30-45 minutes, with additional tracks released through a B-sides album following Hornet Disaster, which would feature songs not selected for the main album.
In 2023, Sputnik embarked on their first tour with a full band, performing many tracks from Hornet Disaster, including Angel, Tiara, Blanket, and Blood Online. These songs quickly became fan favorites, with some fans creating bootlegs featuring live recordings. Some dedicated listeners even transcribed lyrics from these songs by going through multiple live recordings.
Near the end of 2023, Sputnik announced that the album would not be released that year. However, a few months later, they revealed plans to extend the album's runtime to over 70 minutes, incorporating many former B-sides into the main tracklist, including the fan favorite Green Tea Seaweed Sea. Unfortunately, Luna Amplified was cut as it no longer fit the album's narrative.
In October 2024 they finally announced the album's release, posting the cover art and tracklist with a release date of March 2025, together with a US tour, that began just days before the album release. This announcement was followed by multiple singles, showcasing many different sounds present on the full album.
Just hours before the album’s release, they hosted a listening party on Bandcamp, allowing fans to discuss the record while providing valuable insight into its creation. After six years of development, Hornet Disaster stands as a natural evolution of the sound introduced on Come In, incorporating elements from Sputnik’s various side projects. An album that might prove even more influential to the future of emo than Come In itself.
Check out the album here: https://www.topshelfrecords.com/278