Tougher Than the Rest
Tougher Than the Rest
Nation of Language

Tougher Than the Rest

Regular price $2.00 $0.00
Release date: May 29, 2026
Label:  Sub Pop
Catalog #: 71748

Pre-order details

  • All pre-orders will also receive any and all pre-release track downloads in advance of the album release as they are made public, which will be available from your SubPop.com account as they become available.
  • All physical pre-order items should ship out from our warehouse in Seattle, WA between 5-8 days before release date, so long as there are no delays in manufacturing that would delay this advance shipping timeline.
  • International orders may not arrive by release day as extra time must be taken into consideration for distance traveled and customs department clearance.

Nation of Language is sharing a striking new cover of Bruce Springsteen’s Tunnel of Love album track “Tougher Than the Rest.” The song will also be available on a limited-edition 7” single (of 1000 copies). Nation of Language’s Ian Richard Devaney offers this on the track: "Like any good New Jersey resident I grew up listening to Springsteen, but this song somehow slipped by me during that formative era. I was really only exposed to it within the last few years, and it's followed me around since then. 

I can remember finishing a particularly emotional show somewhere deep in last year's tour, and our sound engineer Skinny started playing it as our exit music. It caught me so hard that I stayed there, just offstage, and listened to the rest of the song blasting, mixed with the sounds of all of the people milling about the venue. 

When we ultimately endeavored that we might try doing our own version of the song we luckily had a Yamaha CS-80 at our disposal, the same synth model which featured pretty heavily across the Tunnel of Love sessions back in ’87. Knowing we were working with some of the same textures as the original made it a little less daunting to cover Bruce.”


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