Jamie Lenman announces new album ‘The Atheist’
JAMIE LENMAN has announced a new album!
Titled The Atheist, the upcoming album from the alternative/indie-pop songwriter is the follow-up to 2020’s King Of Clubs, and is scheduled to be released in November this year, via Big Scary Monsters.
Recorded at The Chapel Studios in Chichester over January and February 2022, forthcoming new album The Atheist was engineered, produced and mixed by Mark Roberts [DELTA SLEEP, BLACK PEAKS, THE PHYSICS HOUSE BAND] with additional engineering by Kieran Heighes, and mastered by Tom Langrish [65DOS, FONTAINES D.C., CHUBBY & THE GANG, IDLES].
Speaking about the upcoming album, Lenman says, “I’ve got into the habit of saying, whenever I have a new record out, ‘I’ve been trying to do something like this for a really long time’, because they typically have very lengthy gestation periods with a lot of thought going in. This one is no exception – I’ve always loved mellowed-out indie rock like GEMMA HAYES and PETE YORN and I’ve always wanted to make an album with that sound. Trying to focus on simple songs, looking for any place we could add a bit of extra sugar – a little bit saccharine, but also slightly snide and in some places softly sad. The end result is – I hope – a bittersweet experience.”
Alongside the announcement of the new album, JAMIE LENMAN has released a new music video for a new song lifted from the upcoming album; Lena Don’t Leave Me. Commenting on the track, which channels both his love of stadium rock giants QUEEN and his wife and long-term partner Lena, Lenman says, “it’s a song about what it actually means to refer to your partner as your ‘other half’. That’s how I feel about my wife and I. We started out as two separate people and over the past twenty five years we’ve grown into two halves of a whole person. She fills up my missing parts and I fill hers – not that she has as many as I do. I always feel when people are talking to me that they’re only really getting half the story if she’s not around, just like it says in the song. And not the best half, either!
When I was a kid I loved bands like QUEEN with all their pomp, and then as a teenager I turned the other way with NIRVANA’s punk philosophy. I went through the post-hardcore thing with all the awkward timings and chonky riffs, and now I find myself leaning back towards those giants of stadium rock. I wrote Lena to see if I could do something like TOTO, with my best impression of Brian May’s guitar solos. It’s my love letter to all those classic power ballads – it’s so uncool, it’s cool.”
The track comes with an official video homaging that particular brand of nostalgic 80s music video which always centred around the star’s desire for an unattainable, idealised lover. “I wanted to do it with heart and genuine emotion instead of just spreading some poor model over the bonnet of a porch,” says Lenman of the concept. “I wanted the viewer to see my wife through my eyes, as this amazing, dazzling creature that I just get to be around. We went to the beach on the hottest day of the year and tried to forget the camera was there. It’s nice for people to see all those old photos and how we’ve grown together, just like in the lyrics. And it’s nice for us too!”
Watch the official music video for Lena Don’t Leave Me here:
Also, you can view both the track list and artwork for the upcoming new album below:
Track List:
- This Is All There Is
- Talk Hard
- Hospital Tree
- Deep Down
- Lena Don’t Leave Me
- My Anchor
- Bad Friend
- Song On My Tongue
- This Town Will Never Let Us Go
- The Wedding Ring
- War of Doubt
The Atheist is set for release on November 25th via Big Scary Monsters. Pre-orders are available now and can be purchased here. LENMAN will be touring across the UK in October/November this year, check out the tour dates here!
For more information on JAMIE LENMAN like their official page on Facebook.
