Atlanta underground rock provocateurs Black Lips have released their new LP Sing In A World That's Falling Apart on Vice/Fire. Boasting an unapologetic southern-fried twang, the twelve track collection marks the quintet's most pronounced dalliance with country music yet, with a clang and harmony that is unmistakably the inimitable sound and feel of the Black Lips. While the songcraft and playing is more sophisticated, Black Lips were determined to return to the raw sound roots that marked their early efforts. Recorded and co-produced with Nic Jodoin at Laurel Canyon's legendary, newly reopened Valentine Recording Studios (which played host to Beach Boys and Bing Crosby before shuttering in 1979) without Pro-Tools and other contemporary technology, the band banged the album out directly to tape quickly and cheaply, resulting in their grimiest, most dangerous, and best collection of songs since the aughts.

Like The Byrds, who flirted with pastoral aesthetics before going all-out with the radical departure that was Sweetheart of The Rodeo, the Black Lips have been skirting the edges of country since ‘Sweet Kin’ and ‘Make It’ from their eponymous debut. But eschewing Gram Parson's earnestness, Black Lips are careful not to hint at authenticity, wisely treading into their unfeigned rustic romance with the winking self-awareness of Bob Dylan's ‘You Ain't Goin Nowhere’, Rolling Stones ‘Dear Doctor’, or The Velvet Underground's ‘Lonesome Cowboy Bill’.

The band's stylistic evolution and matured approach to musicianship and writing is, in part, due to the seismic lineup shifts they have undergone over the last half decade. Worn down after a decade of prolific touring and recording, longtime guitarist Ian St Pé left the group in 2014, followed shortly thereafter by original drummer Joe Bradley. Jeweller/actress (and now Gucci muse) Zumi Rosow, whose sax skronk, flamboyant style, and wild stage presence had augmented the team before the duo's departure, assumed a bigger writing and performance role in their absence. Soon drummer Oakley Munson from The Witnesses brought a new backbeat and unique backing vocal harmony into the fold. Last year the quintet was rounded out by guitarist Jeff Clarke of Demon's Claws. The newly forged partnership, all of whom collaborate as songwriters, vocalists, and instrumentalists, has breathed new life into their sound. The result is akin to the radiance of the impulsive, wild nights where you find yourself two-stepping into the unknown.

Manchester’s The Slow Readers Club have announced their fourth album, The Joy Of The Return, out on March 20 via Modern Sky UK. The band have also shared their new single, ‘All I Hear’, the first track to be taken from the album, alongside details of an extensive tour starting in March.

Opening to an energetic blend of driving drums and infectious guitar lines, the track builds through evocative verses and anthemic choruses, imbued with their idiosyncratic brand of insightful and confronting lyricism and set against relentlessly danceable and energy-provoking instrumentation, and premiered with Chris Hawkins on BBC 6Music. “‘All I Hear’ is about a lack of agency and an inability to affect change. That there’s something happening, and you have no choice but to go along with it,” explains singer Aaron Starkie.

Recorded at Parr Street Studios in Liverpool and produced by long-standing collaborator Phil Bulleyment, The Joy Of The Return marks a significant change in the band’s process, with their extensive touring allowing them time to write and develop tracks and arrangements through soundchecks and back-of-van jams.

“I think it’s definitely our most interesting and accomplished record musically,” says singer Aaron Starkie. “Lyrically the album covers love, alienation, the rise of right wing populism and comments on algorithm driven propaganda. And as always, I try to deliver those lyrics with uplifting melody.”

The announcement of the album comes on the back of another huge year for the band, which saw them play a mammoth, 32-date European tour, and a number of sold out UK shows including London’s The Dome and two consecutive nights at Manchester’s The Ritz following the release of their critically acclaimed third album, Build A Tower.

SPRING 2020 UK & EU TOUR DATES

23/03 – King George’s Hall, Blackburn

24/03 – The Sage 2, Gateshead

25/03 – The Liquid Room, Edinburgh

27/03 – O2 Academy, Liverpool

28/03 – O2 Institute 2, Birmingham

29/03 – The Globe, Cardiff

30/03 – Thekla, Bristol

01/04 – Pyramids Centre, Portsmouth

02/04 – Concorde 2, Brighton

03/04 – Electric Ballroom, London

04/04 – Rock City, Nottingham

06/04 – Junction, Cambridge

07/04 – Foundry, Sheffield

08/04 – Beckett University, Leeds

09/04 – Pyramid & Parr Hall, Warrington