Gruff Rhys has shared plans for new album ‘Sadness Sets Me Free’.
The Welsh songwriter has a rich, profoundly original solo catalogue, and went back into the studio last March alongside his live band. Working from the ground up, Gruff Rhys opted to let sessions follow their own path – taking him down some unexpected avenues.
“At this point I quite like working with serendipity,” he says. “Not in a cosmic way, [but] I try and leave things open to chance encounters and chance geography. As I’m around 25 albums in I’m always looking for ways to make a different-sounding record”.
New album ‘Sadness Sets Me Free’ is out on January 26th, and it follows 2021 album ‘Seeking New Gods’, which became his first solo Top 10 record.
Available to pre-order now, the incoming album will be available as a unique Dinked edition on ‘honeycomb neo-neapolitan’ vinyl, an LP sleeve with ‘container doors’ and a bonus 7” with exclusive audio for the first 1500 copies. A gatefold soft pack CD also includes a pull out poster.
New single ‘Celestial Candyfloss’ finds the songwriter on vintage pop form, viewed through Gruff Rhys’ extra-dimensional creative lens. The song is, he says, “an attempted pocket symphony about the cosmic lengths that people will travel in the pursuit of love and acceptance.”
“Mark James has brought the ‘Sadness Sets Me Free’ album cover to life and managed to place me watching TV interference in a shipping container that’s lost in space. For what is apparently the 25th album I’ve had a hand in writing I’ve reverted to a rich seam of inspiration relating to shedding some light on sadness and the general terror of cosmic loneliness.”
Mark James directs the inter-galactic video for ‘Celestial Candyfloss’ – tune in now.
Tracklisting
Sadness Sets Me Free
Bad Friend
Celestial Candyfloss
Silver Lining (lead balloons)
On The Far Side of the Dollar
They Sold My Home to Build a skyscraper
Peace Signs
Cover up the Cover up
I Tended My Resignation
I’ll Keep Singing
Photo Credit: Mark James
