There is a question that feels especially urgent in an age often marked by exhaustion and disillusionment and resignation, the question of who we want to become and what kind of future we are willing to imagine. It is easy, amid the noise and the anxiety of the present, to lose the capacity for hope, to forget the fearless visions we had as children when the future still felt wide open. I WANT POETRY refuse to surrender that capacity, and on their new album Future Selves, released June 12, 2026, the Dresden-based indie pop duo open a bright, kaleidoscopic world of shimmering synths and driving beats and soaring hooks, telling of a utopian tomorrow. These are danceable pop poems about transformation and emotional courage and the power to shape our own future, a luminous and forward-facing record rooted in the belief that the future is not distant or abstract but begins in the choices we make today.
Future Selves represents a significant evolution for singer and songwriter Tine von Bergen and keyboardist and composer Till Moritz Moll. Where their earlier work, the debut Human Touch and 2023’s SOLACE + LIGHT, moved between dreamlike melancholy and nostalgic warmth and introspective elegance, the new record turns toward movement and color and release. This shift toward a more euphoric and danceable sound reflects the album’s hopeful, forward-facing vision, the music itself embodying the sense of possibility and liberation that the album celebrates. The cinematic energy and emotional depth that have always characterized the duo’s work remain, but they are now channeled toward optimism and release rather than introspective melancholy, the renewed sense of possibility audible in every shimmering synth and driving beat.
The optimistic philosophy at the heart of Future Selves is genuinely valuable in the current moment. As von Bergen explains, there are always things that unsettle us and make us afraid, but the duo realized that we can shape the future ourselves, each of us in small ways and together in bigger ones. This recognition of our own agency, the understanding that the future is something we actively create rather than passively receive, is the album’s empowering core. The seeing of the possibilities ahead felt liberating and connecting to the duo, and this feeling of liberation runs through the entire record, the album offering its listeners the same sense of agency and possibility, the reminder that we have the power to shape our own tomorrow.
This hopeful vision runs through the album’s varied tracks. The fast-paced, euphoric title track Future Selves embodies the album’s forward-facing energy, the celebration of the selves we might become and the future we might build. The reflective ballad Apology brings a moment of emotional depth and vulnerability, while the nostalgic glow of Child looks back to the fearless visions of childhood when the future felt wide open, carrying that childhood wonder into the present. Supersize World offers social critique, the album’s optimism not naive but aware of the problems of the present, while No Is A Full Sentence delivers self-empowered clarity, the assertion of boundaries being part of the emotional courage that the album champions. This range of tracks demonstrates that the album’s optimism is not simplistic but encompasses reflection and critique and self-empowerment alongside its euphoric celebration.
The creation of Future Selves in the quiet surroundings of a centuries-old country house in the endless fields of eastern Germany gave the songs a new physicality and freedom. Working with longtime producer Michael Vajna in this remote, peaceful setting, the duo placed much more emphasis on rhythm and movement, the beats becoming more danceable and the sounds more playful and the vocals more experimental, while the emotional core remained unmistakably I WANT POETRY. The contrast between the quiet, rural recording environment and the euphoric, movement-driven music is striking, the peace of the country house apparently providing the freedom for the duo to explore a more physical and danceable sound. As Moll describes, they would sometimes walk down to the Elbe river and dance to the demos in their headphones, and that sense of freedom became part of the songs, the physical joy of dancing by the river infusing the music with its liberated energy.
The album’s central message offers a hopeful counterpoint to a time of exhaustion and resignation. Rather than surrendering to the disillusionment that marks so much of contemporary life, I WANT POETRY ask what it means to keep imagining and keep feeling and keep becoming. The album looks back to the fearless visions of childhood, when we imagined flying to the stars, and carries that wonder into a present where so much seems technologically and scientifically possible. As von Bergen observes, the real challenge is to use those possibilities in a positive way, for the good of everyone, the album’s optimism being not blind but purposeful, the hope being directed toward the constructive use of our genuine capacities.
What makes Future Selves so compelling is the way it combines genuine euphoria with real substance. The danceable beats and soaring hooks deliver immediate joy, while the album’s themes of transformation and agency and the responsibility to shape a better future give that joy genuine depth. This is pop music with a purpose, the euphoric sound carrying a message of hope and empowerment, the album refusing the false choice between accessible pleasure and meaningful content.
Future Selves is the sound of a duo refusing to surrender hope, a bright and kaleidoscopic album about transformation and emotional courage and the power to shape our own tomorrow. I WANT POETRY have turned toward movement and color and release, the shimmering synths and driving beats carrying an optimistic vision of a future that begins in the choices we make today.
The future is not distant or abstract but already unfolding in our hands, and I WANT POETRY have made an album that invites us to imagine and shape it. Future Selves is a luminous reminder of our own agency, and its euphoric hope offers genuine light in a time that badly needs it. Welcome to the future.
