Gruff Rhys announces new album, ‘Sadness Sets Me Free’
Gruff Rhys has announced a new record titled Sadness Sets Me Free. Between his solo work, soundtracks, and releases with bands, including Super Furry Animals, the album will mark the 25th full-length studio release of his career.
The announcement is accompanied by the release of the lead single, ‘Celestial Candyfloss’. Upbeat instrumentals and swelling strings accompany the devotional love song, as Rhys declares, “Love as the final destiny, chasing it like a park ranger, shoot for celestial candy floss, licking it like there’s no danger”.
According to the Super Furry Animals vocalist, the track is “an attempted pocket symphony about the cosmic lengths that people will travel in the pursuit of love and acceptance.”
The new track is accompanied by a music video which reflects the cosmic quality of the song. Directed by Mark James, it follows Rhys floating through a purple sky in a shipping container. Behind him, an LED light reads, “Sadness sets me free”, a nod to the new record.
Speaking on the forthcoming album, he added: “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’d 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.”
The album was recorded in just three days at La Frette Studios, a 19th-century mansion and residential recording studio just outside of Paris. The studio has previously hosted the likes of Arctic Monkeys, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, and Marianne Faithfull.
Sadness Sets Me Free is available to pre-order now, with a release date of Friday, January 26th, 2024. Watch the video for the lead single, ‘Celestial Candyfloss’, below.
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