Lambchop announce new album

LAMBCHOP ANNOUNCE NEW ALBUM THIS (IS WHAT I WANTED TO TELL YOU)

SHARE LEAD SINGLE ‘THE DECEMBER-ISH YOU’

ANNOUNCE EUROPEAN TOUR INCLUDING LONDON’S EARTH IN APRIL

OUT 22 MARCH 2019 VIA CITY SLANG

Listen to ‘The December-ish you’ here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRKeoOBnUhk

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Lambchop have today announced their new album This (is what I wanted to tell you) will be released on 22 March 2019 via City Slang. The album, by the way, is the fourteenth Lambchop album because, like all the tallest buildings in the world, Lambchop skips No. 13. Along with the announcement they have shared the lead single ‘The December-ish you’ which finds band leader Kurt Wagner singing in a quivering falsetto over muted soul sparkle as he compromises with the cold expectations and consistent letdown of our era.

When we asked Wagner for a sentence about the first single off his new album, he replied in typical enigmatic fashion: “Picture yourself on a boat on a river, with tangerine trees and marmalade skies… This is not that.”

Not so long ago, Lambchop had a famously sprawling line-up, toting a dozen or so members around the world and into the studio to document elliptical country-soul mutations. But in recent years, the band has become a more personal vehicle for Wagner. Anchored by him and framed by bassist Matt Swanson and Wagner’s incorrigibly grinning foil, the pianist Tony Crow, the Lambchop of this decade has become more pliant and adaptable, opening itself to unexpected collaborators that give Wagner’s thoughts and feelings the shape they need for each new album. That was the idea for 2012’s engrossing Mr. M and 2016’s staggering (and tragically timed, we should say here) FLOTUS, and it remains the approach for This (is what I wanted to tell you).

In the summer of 2017, Wagner left Nashville and crossed the Blue Ridge Mountains into North Carolina, where he attended the 50th birthday party of longtime friend and Merge co-founder Mac McCaughan. That night, Wagner re-met Mac’s younger brother, Matt McCaughan, who has spent the last decade drumming for the likes of Bon Iver and Hiss Golden Messenger. McCaughan told Wagner he had been adventuring inside the world of rack-mounted analogue synthesisers and asked if Wagner might send some vocals to which he could compose.

They became instant musical pen pals, with Wagner sending him a cappella takes of new song ideas and McCaughan dispatching long-form synthesiser pieces for inspiration. McCaughan eventually headed to Nashville, where, together, they put a band behind the songs, using pedal steel and piano and the harmonica of Nashville legend Charlie McCoy to colour in the spaces of these black-and-white sketches. That unexpected human connection—that is, rekindling an old friendship to make music in a way you never imagined—is a happy answer to the worries of This (is what I wanted to tell you), an album whose honesty pulls on your heart with the weight of absolute empathy. Stunning, beautiful, and surprising, This (is what I wanted to tell you) is a record you just need to hear.

Pre-order This (is what I wanted to tell you) here:
https://shop.cityslang.com/collections/lambchop

Photo credit: Steve Gullick

Tracklist:

1. The new isn’t so you anymore
2. Crosswords, or what this says about you
3. Everything for you
4. The lasting last of you
5. The air is heavy and I should be listening to you
6. The December-ish you
7. This is what I wanted to tell you
8. Flower

Tour dates:

21 Apr – London @ EartH

12 Apr – Nijmegen, NL @ Doornroosje
13 Apr – Copenhagen, DK @ DR Koncerthuset, Studie 2
14 Apr – Oslo, NO @ Röverstaden
17 Apr – Leipzig, DE @ Felsenkeller
18 Apr – Munich, DE @ Muffathalle
19 Apr – Vienna, AT @ WUK
20 Apr – Darmstadt, DE @ Centralstation
23 Apr – Paris, FR @ Maroquinerie
24 Apr – Bern, CH @ Dachstock, Reitschule
25 Apr – Zurich, CH @ Rote Fabrik
26 Apr – Berlin, DE @ Funkhaus
27 Apr – Cologne, DE @ Gloria
28 Apr – Brussels, BE @ Nuits Botanique Festival
29 Apr – Hamburg, DE @ Elbphilharmony
30 Apr – Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso Noord

Tickets are available here:
https://www.thisiswhatiwantedtotellyou.com

Praise for FLOTUS:

“A remarkable case of sonic reinvention”
5/5 The Independent

“FLOTUS is highly processed, highly textured – and yet for the most part, it sounds natural and unforced”
‘Album of the Month’ 4/5 MOJO

“An album which may turn out to be one of their best and most accessible”
‘Album of the Month’ 4/5 Uncut

“Extraordinary reinvention – his latest move makes perfect sense”
Sunday Times

“Filled with warmth, nostalgia and soft, autumnal light”
4/5 The Guardian

“FLOTUS is a calm, cumulative album”
4/5 The Observer

“The end result is out on its own”
4/5 Evening Standard

“It is an usual innovation – but the risk pays off”
4/5 FT

“A startling reinvention”
4.5/5 The Sun

“A natural continuation of the Lambchop legacy”
4/5 The Times

“A dozen records deep in their career, we find Lambchop at their most adventurous, and it sounds wonderful”
4/5 The Skinny

4/5 Daily Mirror

“A rather hypnotising experience”
8/10 Loud & Quiet

“Lambchop are just as vital as they’ve ever been”
8/10 Clash

“Frequently spellbinding”
8/10 The Line of Best Fit