These New Puritans announce fifth album ‘Crooked Wing’ with gothic Caroline Polachek collaboration ‘Industrial Love Song’
These New Puritans have announced their new album ‘Crooked Wing’ and shared its lead single ‘Industrial Love Song’, featuring Caroline Polachek.
It will be the Southend band’s first studio record in six years and the follow-up to 2019’s ‘Inside The Rose’. It will be released on May 23 via Domino, and is available to pre-order/pre-save here in multiple formats, including digital, CD and vinyl.
They have given fans the first taste of the album in the form of ‘Industrial Love Song’, a track that finds two cranes singing to each other. The band’s Jack Barnett sings from the perspective of one, while guest vocalist Polachek represents the other.
Check out the song’s video, by artist and photographer Harley Weir alongside the band.
“Industrial Love Song is a duet between two cranes on a building site,” Barnett has explained. “Caroline sings the part of one crane, I sing the other; they can’t touch (their movements are controlled by the operator), but when the sun rises they hope that their shadows will cross. I like how the title George came up with misdirects expectations – it’s not that kind of industrial.”
“It’s hard to attach a time period to this song,” George Barnett added. “It’s progressive music made with instruments that have been around for hundreds of years.”
“As we exit the mechanical age, you realise how much we have in common with our machines, how human they are,” Jack continued. “Suddenly it didn’t feel so absurd to write a love song from their perspective.”
Polachek has written on Instagram about her involvement. “I’ve been a deep fan of TNP for so many years,” she said. “Wrote to them in 2022 to express my love for ‘Inside The Rose’, and a few months later they sent me this exquisite song…”
The band will also play a one-off special performance at EartH in London on June 12 to celebrate the album’s release. Tickets are on sale now and you can get yours here.
These New Puritans – ‘Crooked Wing’ tracklist:
- ‘Waiting’
- ‘Bells’
- ‘A Season In Hell’
- ‘Industrial Love Song’
- ‘I’m Already Here’
- ‘Wild Fields (I Don’t Want To)’
- ‘The Old World’
- ‘Crooked Wing’
- ‘Goodnight’
- ‘Return’
The new album has been produced by Jack Barnett alongside Bark Psychosis’ Graham Sutton, who also co-produced previous albums ‘Hidden’, which was named NME’s album of the year in 2010, and ‘Field Of Reeds’ in 2013, with George Barnett executive producing. As well as Polachek, jazz double bassist Chris Laurence will also appear on the record.
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Max Pilley
NME
