Cold War Kids Release ‘Jesse Latour’ Ahead Of Anniversary Reissue
The expanded debut includes four newly completed songs and six live recordings from 2007.
Cold War Kids have released “Jesse Latour,” the latest preview of Robbers & Cowards / Complete Cowards (20th Anniversary Edition). Due October 30 via UMe, the expanded collection pairs their 2006 debut with four newly completed songs and six live recordings from the following year. The band returned to unfinished material written during the original album’s era to complete and record it two decades later.
Frontman and primary songwriter Nathan Willett explained the new single’s origins: “‘Jesse Latour’ is a song about an old friend we used to know in Fullerton. He was a sweet, sensitive poet who listened to Belle & Sebastian and you just knew that the world was gonna break his heart. We were listening to Bob Dylan’s ‘Isis’ a lot and I really wanted to write a song that had that adventure type of narrative and Jesse became our muse,” says Willett. The track joins the recently released “Loyalty” and “There Goes The Night,” along with “She Can Do No Wrong,” as the four songs that date back to the debut’s writing period but did not appear on the original album.
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The live selections document the band’s 2007 tour in support of Robbers & Cowards, with recordings from Amsterdam, Atlanta, Paris, and Philadelphia. They include “Saint John,” “Hair Down,” “God, Make Up Your Mind,” “Passing The Hat,” “Dirt In The Ground,” and “Hospital Beds.” Five are previously unreleased; the performance of “Saint John” from Amsterdam’s Paradiso appeared on 2008’s The Paradiso Sessions.
The anniversary edition will be available on 2CD and as a 2LP set on black vinyl or limited-edition Brick Red vinyl. Both vinyl versions feature alternate and new artwork. A Digital Deluxe Edition will also include Phantogram’s newly reimagined version of “Hang Me Up to Dry,” which is already available to stream. More artist reinterpretations of songs from Robbers & Cowards are planned for 2027.
Originally released in 2006, Robbers & Cowards featured “Hang Me Up to Dry,” “We Used to Vacation,” and “Hospital Beds.” The anniversary collection brings together the finished debut, material left incomplete at the time, and performances recorded as the band took those songs on the road.
