Planning for Burial, the solo project of Thom Wasluck, has announced its first new album since 2017's Below the House titled It's Closeness, It's Easy. Set for release May 30th on The Flenser, the record is a soundtrack to life’s quiet changes—grief, love, and the bonds that time can’t break.
If Below the House was about returning home, following in the footsteps of your father and joining a union, and leaving behind youth’s wild days, It’s Closeness, It’s Easy embraces what comes next—the weight of all years, the quiet shifts, the reckoning with what remains. This record is many things; it captures the slow drift of time, the unnoticed shifts in a loved one—the creeping changes in mental health, the quiet pull of addiction, the kind of grief that settles in the bones rather than announces itself.
Along with the announcement, PFB shares a first look at the album with the cavernous and foreboding single “A Flowing Field of Green.” Wasluck comments: "When I first wrote it I was thinking about how often on tour or when visiting other cities I’d want to move there, away from everything I know. But I’ve been to a lot of places and lived in a few too and realized everywhere will suck if you let it. You gotta be the change you wanna see, you gotta make the things you want to happen become a reality no matter where you’re at."
Combining vast heaviness and delicate ambience, Planning for Burial weaves a densely textured sonic palette where thick swaths of sound crash and roar, giving way to shimmers of celestial bliss.
At its core, It’s Closeness, It’s Easy is about stepping into middle age and taking stock. It confronts the reality of living with the hand that’s been dealt and searching for meaning in what remains. It speaks to loss—the crushing weight of saying goodbye to a beloved 17 year-old cat, the slow-motion grief of watching friends self-destruct, the inescapable passage of time as it bears down on aging parents and the self. But it also reflects the warmth of reconnection, the kind of love that never burns out but instead deepens. The feeling of picking up where things left off, untouched by the years in between.
Though written over the course of two years, the recording process reflects a sense of immediacy. Rather than assembling songs piece by piece over time, the album took shape in singular, immersive sessions—less an act of construction, more an unveiling of something already waiting to take shape.
Rooted in a staunch DIY ethos, Wasluck handles every aspect of Planning for Burial project himself—recording the music, designing the artwork, and performing live as a one-man band. He books his own tours, ever and independent creative. This hands-on approach has led Planning for Burial to play hundreds of shows solidifying his place in the underground music scene. A defining moment came in 2018 when he performed at the Meltdown Festival in London, curated by Robert Smith of The Cure.
As of 2025 Planning for Burial has existed for 20 years. Wasluck’s debut full-length, Leaving (2009), was released on Enemies List Home Recordings, the in-house label of Have a Nice Life. In 2014, he joined The Flenser with Desideratum, becoming a cornerstone for the label’s connection to community and ethos. The follow-up, Below the House (2017), was met with widespread acclaim, further establishing Planning for Burial as a voice that's singular and unique.