Their first new material since 2017’s Music For The Age Of Miracles, London’s The Clientele have shared their new single, Blue Over Blue, the first taster of the three-piece’s upcoming album, I Am Not There Anymore, set for release July 28th via Merge.
Painting the scary adventure of vocalist Alasdair MacLean being lost in the woods with his son, the track exhibits the growth in the band’s sound with percussive samples and moments where it opens up to allow room for its cinematic scope, with horns and strings. Speaking of the track, Maclean explains:
‘Blue Over Blue’ is about getting lost in the woods on Hampstead Heath on an autumn day with my two-year-old son on my shoulders – he loved it and wanted to play hide and seek. I knew he was a ticking time bomb as I had no food and was trying to find my way back to a path.
Lyrically inspired by MacLean’s memories of Summer in 1997, when his mum died, I Am Not Real regularly evokes the feeling of ‘not feeling real’, and functions as a way of mourning. A 19-track journey that spans light bossa nova beats to Clientele’s signature chamber pop, in MacLean’s own words, the album is all about ‘the memory of childhood but at the same time the impossibility of truly remembering childhood… or even knowing who or what you are.’
