Gruff Rhys has announced new solo album Sadness Sets Me Free, which will be out January 26 via Rough Trade. This is the 25th album of his career, including solo works, records as part Super Furry Animals and Neon Neon, and soundtracks. It’s also his second album of the year, the first being his soundtrack for The Almond & The Seahorse.
The bulk of the album was recorded by Gruff and his band — Osian Gwynedd (piano), Huw V Williams (double bass) and Kliph Scurlock (drums) — in a three-day session in Paris in March 2022, with strings and backing vocals by This is the Kit‘s Kate Stables added later. “At this point I quite like working with serendipity,” Rhys says of the album. “Not in a cosmic way, [but] I try and leave things open to chance encounters and chance geography…I’m always looking for ways to make a different-sounding record.”
The first single from the album is “Celestial Candyfloss,” a rather giddy creation that Rhys says is “an attempted pocket symphony about the cosmic lengths that people will travel in the pursuit of love and acceptance.” The video is by longtime collaborator Mark James who brings the album cover to life. “[Mark’s] managed to place me watching TV interference in a shipping container that’s lost in space,” he says. “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.” Watch the video below.
Gruff Rhys will be in North America this month, playing headline shows and opening for This is The Kit (whose new album he produced). The tour starts in NYC, playing with TiTK at Le Poisson Rouge on 10/11 with Rozi Plain, and headlining Union Pool on 10/12.
Sadness Sets Me Free:
01) Sadness Sets Me Free
02) Bad Friend
03) Celestial Candyfloss
04) Silver Lining (lead balloons)
05) On The Far Side of the Dollar
06) They Sold My Home to Build a skyscraper
07) Peace Signs
08) Cover up the Cover up
09) I Tended My Resignation
10) I’ll Keep Singing
Gruff Rhys – 2023 / 2024 Tour Dates
10/11 – New York, NY @ Le Poisson Rouge#
10/12 – Brooklyn, NY @ Union Pool
10/13 – Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s#
10/14 – Washington, DC @ Songbyrd#
10/17 – Toronto, ON @ The Drake Hotel
10/19 – Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall
10/20 – Milwaukee, WI @ The Back Room at Colectivo Coffee#
10/21 – Minneapolis, MN @ Turf Club #
10/27-29 – Caernarfon, UK @ Caernarfon Castle
11/5 – Brighton, UK @ Mutations Festival
12/1 – Glasgow, UK @ Barrowlands^
12/2 – Liverpool, UK @ Olympia^
2/2 – Aberystwyth, UK @ Arts Centre
# = w/ This Is The Kit
^ = w/ The Coral