Expected 26/01/24
Lead-off single ‘Celestial Candyfloss’ is a telling four minute glimpse of the album,revealing the heady wonders and classic pop sounds within. Soaring strings carry thesweet melodies along, anchored by just enough necessary melancholy to addemotional ballast. The eye-popping video was created by long-time collaborator MarkJames and compliments the scope and style of the song on a galactic scale.· ‘Celestial Candyfloss’ is, Gruff says, “an attempted pocket symphony about thecosmic lengths that people will travel in the pursuit of love and acceptance. MarkJames has brought the ‘Sadness Sets Me Free’ album cover to life and managed toplace me watching TV interference in a shipping container that’s lost in space. Forwhat is apparently the 25th album I’ve had a hand in writing I’ve reverted to a richseam of inspiration relating to shedding some light on sadness and the general terrorof cosmic loneliness.” · And so it was that Gruff and his band - Osian Gwynedd (piano), Huw V Williams(double bass) and former Flaming Lips drummer turned Super Furry Animalsarchivist Kliph Scurlock (drums) - piled into a van driven by the late, legendary tourmanager ‘Dr’ Kiko Loiacono, and raced from Dunkirk, where they had just played thefinal show of a tour of Spain and France, to the outskirts of Paris in the early hours ofa March morning in 2022. There, in La Frette Studios, a recording facility installed ina 19th-century house, Gruff and his road-hardened group tracked ‘Sadness Sets MeFree’ in just three days. Backing vocals were added along the way by Kate Stablesfrom This Is The Kit, along with additional strings and orchestration and it was mixedbetween Marseille and Cardiff. What finally emerged from these intense bouts ofcross-continental activity was Gruff’s most accomplished and beautiful record to date.
Tracklisting:
Sadness Sets Me Free
Bad Friend Celestial Candyfloss
Silver Lining (Lead Balloons)
On The Far Side of the Dollar They Sold My Home To Build A Skyscraper
Peace Signs
Cover Up The Cover Up
I Tendered My Resignation
I’ll Keep Singing