Parting ways with a major record label can devastate or invigorate a band.

For the Used, it seems to be the latter. Singer Bert McCracken says his Utah-bred group will release its near-finished fifth studio album, ‘Vulnerable,’ in early 2012 on its own Dental Records.

“We love to make music; we love to play music live, so it’s perfect,” McCracken told PunkVideosRock. “We never want to quit doing what we love to do, you know?”

Now free from Warner Bros./Reprise, the Used’s longtime label home, McCracken says the future “is all about the love of music — really, you know, no one’s standing in our way to love music.”

Producing ‘Vulnerable’ is Goldfinger’s John Feldmann, whose studio credits include albums by Red Jumpsuit Apparatus. As for the status and style of ‘Vulnerable,’ McCracken said, “It’s almost done; it’s being mixed up right now. It’s beautiful. It’s really, really gross pop music, and that’s what it’s all about.”

Look for the band to hit the road around the time of the album’s February release, McCracken added.

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