Mr Haze follows in the footsteps of the album’s catchy lead single and title track Hi, a stripped-back number accompanied by an atmospheric spaghetti-western riff. The group’s multi-talented frontwoman Sharleen Spiteri told The List that the big-screen feel of that song – and its allusions to Ennio Morricone’s legendary scores for a plethora of classic Sergio Leone films – were wholly deliberate. She said “All our albums have cinematic songs. Morricone in particular is still a huge influence. We’re referencing our past but also writing from the position we’re in now. Being able to stand back from what you’ve achieved gives you a different perspective. Our aim has only ever been to make great music.”

A previous incarnation of Hi – featuring the group’s unlikely long-term collaborative partners Wu-Tang Clan – had been drip-fed to fans in December. Both versions of the song are set to feature on the deluxe version of the new LP of the same name, which hits the shelves on May 28th. The record will also include a duet with Altered Images singer Clare Grogan (Look What You’ve Done) and a track co-written with dulcet-toned Yorkshire troubadour Richard Hawley (Dark Fire).

Hi (the album) is Texas’ first LP since 2017’s Jump On Board, a chart-topper in their native Scotland which reached number #6 on the Official UK Albums Chart. Reviews for that record were broadly positive, with Albumism hailing “a sound cultivated over 27 years that has finally reached the full peak of its flavour“.

Texas are still waiting to take their debut record, 1989’s Southside, out on the road for a belated 30th birthday encore. The British and Irish anniversary tour for the record – which spawned the group’s first hit single in country-rock corker I Don’t Want A Lover – had been scheduled to take place in May and June this year, but has now been pushed back to February and March 2022 on public health grounds. The band unveiled the new dates for the 28-gig tour earlier this month.

As you’ve probably been expecting we have to reschedule our Southside UK & Ireland dates. We really appreciate your patience & know this will come as a disappointment but the safety of our fans & crew is the most important thing for us. We can’t wait to get on the road & see you. pic.twitter.com/caa7uN5kz0

— Texas (@texastheband) March 4, 2021

The track listing for the deluxe edition of Hi, which is released via BMG on May 28th, is as follows:

Mr Haze
Hi (with Wu-Tang Clan)
Just Want To Be Liked
Unbelievable
Moonstar
Dark Fire
Look What You’ve Done (with Clare Grogan)
Heaven Knows
You Can Call Me
Sound of My Voice
Falling
Hi (Single Mix)
Had A Hard Day 
Had to Leave

Tickets are now on sale for our December tour!

We CANNOT WAIT to get back out there and play for you all! Bring it on!

You can grab your tickets at https://t.co/Ydhc1yhde1 @RouteOneBooking

Roll on December! pic.twitter.com/JTrcU4rxLL

— The Dust Coda (@TheDustCoda) April 1, 2021

Reviews for Mojo Skyline have been broadly positive thus far, with Louder Sound‘s Malcolm Dome comparing The Dust Coda’s well-honed blues-rock sound to the likes of Led Zeppelin, Bad Company and Humble Pie. Dome writes: “There was always going to be an album that would come along and lift the much vaunted New Wave Of Classic Rock to a new level. And this could be it.”

In an interview with My Global Mind, vocalist John Drake said that the band fully embraced comparisons to their stylistic influences. The group’s Antipodean frontman said “Honestly, I do not think about trying to not show or hide influences. I just get together with (guitarist) Adam and write these songs and they come out the way they come out and to be mentioned in the same breath as Robert Plant, or Chris Cornell or Axl Rose, which I often do, to me is just a massive compliment. I do not think, ‘Oh, God, they are nothing like us.’ Because I am like, ‘Well, that’s great.’ Because the Dust Coda is a melting pot of some really great bands and if someone mentions that we are a bit like that, or I am happy with it because we are really confident with our sound.

Drake adds: “We feel like we are honest. It is not contrived. We are not trying to contrive something and make anything like something, if you hear that part of the song do you think there is a bit of that there and then you get to the chorus and you think it is a bit more Audioslave. I’m like, ‘Great. Why not?’ I’m cool with that, man.”

Mojo Skyline, which currently sits at number #27 in the UK Albums Chart,  arrives just over three years on from the band’s 2017 eponymous debut LP. The new record was produced by New Zealander Clint Murphy, who has worked with an eclectic mix of artists including Welsh rock icons Manic Street Preachers; Spice Girls alumna Mel C and US hip-hop giant 50 Cent. The Dust Coda have already released a fiery collection of high-octane singles from the album; including the ZZ-Top-esque hard rock stomper Limbo Man; the blues-nu metal fusion Breakdown; and brooding rock-pop number Jimmy 2 Times.

The Dust Coda’s scheduled UK tour dates this year are as follows:

04/12/21 – Boston Music Room – London
05/12 – Deaf Institute – Manchester
06/12 – King Tut’s – Glasgow
07/12 – Billy Bootleggers – Nottingham
08/12 – Head of Steam – Newcastle
10/12 – The Exchange – Bristol
11/12 – Dead Wax – Birmingham
12/12 – Heartbreakers – Southampton

Our new album Half Drunk Under A Full Moon, is out now! Buy and listen here >> https://t.co/7El3cnpObG pic.twitter.com/7TEv5edUv1

— The Fratellis (@TheFratellis) April 2, 2021

The Fratellis have already released a clutch of singles from the new record, including the Tamla Motown-influenced brass-pop singalong number Six Days In June; sweeping ballad Action Replay; and the up-tempo, doo-wop number Need A Little Love. In an interview with The Scotsman in February, frontman Jon Fratelli spoke about the group’s musical evolution over recent years – which has never been more audible than it is on the new record – saying: “I’m sure it can’t have escaped the notice of the people who’ve liked what we do from the beginning, those poor souls, that if you compare the first record to where we are now, it’s hard to imagine it’s even the same group of people. An easy description would be to say it’s a colourful group of songs; they feel multi-coloured.”

Early reviews for the new album have been resoundingly positive. Gigwise‘s Vicky Greer opines: “With more sonic intricacy than ever before and typically gorgeous lyrics, The Fratellis have yet again knocked it out of the park”, adding: “With every album, they tweak and develop their sound to show a new side of themselves, without compromising that part of their music that makes them instantly recognisable…Maybe one day The Fratellis will make a bad album, but not this time.”

Elsewhere, NME have praised the band for decisively breaking free from the sizeable lad-rock spectre of their signature 2006 glam-tinged rabble-rouser Chelsea Dagger. Jordan Bassett writes “‘Chelsea Dagger’ has overshadowed the band since it rocketed the then-unknowns into the Top 10 in 2006, a time when a pork pie hat and a dream was all that stood between you and a mid-afternoon set at V Festival. 43 million YouTube streams of the song – and just as many sports montages and pub brawls – followed. The album of jaunty, scratchy indie tunes that the song appeared on, ‘Costello Music’, sold more than a million copies and spent no less than 83 weeks in the charts. If you checked out after that, here’s some potentially surprising news: five albums later, the trio have released 10 classy, lush songs audibly inspired by ‘60s girl group doo-wop.”

This summer The Fratellis are also set to release their cover of Baccara’s disco classic Yes Sir, I Can Boogie in honour of Scotland’s appearance at the delayed European Championships. It remains to be seen whether their rendition will have the same impact as the Manic Street Preachers’ superb Together Stronger (Come on Wales) or the Lightning Seeds’ much-played Three Lions; both of which inspired their home nations to semi-final appearances in 2016 and 1996 respectively. Baccara’s Maria Mendiola told the Scottish Sun that The Fratellis’ take on the Spanish duo’s 1977 hit was “not my cup of tea“, but added “if they reach, let’s say, 18 million records, like we did in the 1970s, then I am very happy.”

The Fratellis are set to take Half Drunk Under A New Moon on the road soon, with eight dates pencilled in for the autumn ahead of an official UK Tour in 2022. Their current schedule of shows is as follows:

03/09/21 – La Belle Angele – Edinburgh
10/09 – The 1865 – Southampton
11/09 – Pryzm – Kingston-upon-Thames
12/09 – Sheffield Academy – Sheffield
17/09 – Komedia – Bath
18/09 – Junction – Cambridge
23/09 – Beat Generator – Dundee
24/09 – Rutherglen Town Hall – Rutherglen
18/03/22 – Academy –  Manchester
19/03 – Academy – Oxford
20/03 – Academy – Bristol
22/03 – Tramshed – Cardiff
24/03 – Barrowland – Glasgow
25/03 – Barrowland – Glasgow
27/03 – Hull University – Hull
29/03 – City Hall – Newcastle
30/03 – Academy – Leeds
31/03 – Academy – Liverpool
02/04 – UEA –  Norwich
04/04 – Rock City – Nottingham
05/04 – Forum – London
06/04 – Academy – Birmingham

‘GODSPEED’ IS OUT NOW. GVxhttps://t.co/GWKhDeNmUB pic.twitter.com/14yWAl3W4o

— Glasvegas (@glasvegas) April 2, 2021

The Glaswegian outfit have drip-fed singles from the new album over the course of the last seven months, beginning with Keep Me A Space. That track – a melodic slice of gritty shoegaze pop – suggested the group were ready to reinvest in the powerful, Spector-esque sound that fuelled the success of their superb 2008 debut LP Glasvegas: a record which sold over 300,000 copies in the UK and spawned some of the decade’s most memorable indie-pop fist-pumpers in Daddy’s Gone and Geraldine.

Keep Me A Space was followed by further singles releases in My Body Is A Glasshouse (A Thousand Stones Ago) – a repackaged version of a pulsating Glasvegas ballad that had been in the ether since 2014 – the grunge-tinged Dying To Live, and darkly atmospheric spoken-word track Shake the Cage (Für Theo). Whilst there have been some notable stylistic differences between the new songs, the band’s trademark fuzzy, wall-of-sound guitar sound  – and frontman James Allan’s signature impassioned, wailing vocals – have remained constant features.

The new record teeters towards concept album territory, with Allan envisioning the eleven tracks as a stream of consciousness narrative chronicling the events of a single murky Clydeside evening. In an interview with NME last year, he said: “The character basically leaves the house at the beginning of the album and starts to drive somewhere. The character’s always inside the car but there’s parts of that drive that are like a daydream, not reminiscent but the way you are when you’re out driving somewhere, your thoughts can jump from one place to the next, and then you’ll maybe notice something that has a memory in real time.”

In an interview with the Daily Record, Allan said he felt compelled to finish the record – even if others had given up hope on it ever springing to life. He said “Songwriters like me are over-dramatic people who think the world is dependent on them fixing what is out of balance. And until you’ve finished the circle everything is a mess. I feel different now it’s finished.”

Last month Allan also provided the soundtrack to Lorraine Kelly-helmed documentary Return To Dunblane, commemorating the 25th anniversary of the murder of sixteen pupils and a teacher at Dunblane Primary School near Stirling – the deadliest mass shooting in British history. The singer-songwriter spoke in depth to The Guardian about the sombre process of composing music to convey the horror and sadness of one of Scotland’s darkest hours.

The tracklisting for Glasvegas’ new album Godspeed is as follows:

1. Parked Car (Exterior)
2. Dive
3. Dying to Live
4. Shake the Cage (Für Theo)
5. Keep Me a Space
6. Parked Car (Interior)
7. Cupid’s Dark Disco
8. My Body Is a Glasshouse (A Thousand Stones Ago)
9. In My Mirror
10. Stay Lit
11. Godspeed

Reminder that tickets for the SEEKING NEW GODS tour go on sale tomorrow 1st April, 9am (not a joke or some kind of stunt) See poster for dates – Welsh gigs to be announced soon & hopefully more cities & countries next year! https://t.co/ZMnFrYabYi pic.twitter.com/xYqQNVJGz2

— Gruff Rhys (@gruffingtonpost) March 31, 2021

Seeking New Gods, which is released on May 21st on Rough Trade, is Rhys’ first outing since 2019’s Pang! – the artist’s third Welsh language album. Pang! was nominated for the 2020 Welsh Music Prize, and received positive critical feedback, with Uncut praising Rhys for “once again embracing the possibilities of technology and harnessing modern, global sounds to enhance his unique vision.”

The new LP was partly recorded in the arid Mojave desert in the heart of the rugged American south-west, and was mixed by Mario Caldato, the Brazilian-American sound engineer best-known for his work with the Beastie Boys. Whilst it was initially designed as a concept album focusing on Mount Paektu (an active volcano on the Chinese-North Korean border), Rhys has been clear that the record is more human than geological.

In a statement released through Rough Trade, the Welshman said: “The album is about people and the civilisations, and the spaces people inhabit over periods of time. How people come and go but the geology sticks around and changes more slowly. I think it’s about memory and time. It’s still a biography of a mountain, but now it’s a Mount Paektu of the mind. You won’t learn much about the real mountain from listening to this record but you will feel something, hopefully.”

Last month Rhys unveiled the album’s melodic, up-tempo lead single Loan Your Loneliness. The track was accompanied by a stylish video directed by longtime collaborator Mark James. Speaking to NME about the video, Rhys said “The monochrome has made it look much sharper and stylish (for want of a better word – I don’t think I know what style is!!) like a Japanese 60’s pop show or something! We added a layer of cloud to add some spot colour and to integrate the album sleeve aesthetic to the video. The colour was always stronger at the very end – I don’t particularly like the brown slippery dinosaurs but love the mammoths and northern lights…. so we bought it back to colour by the end – the narrative being that a soloing guitarist accidentally invented colour TV with sheer exuberance!”

The current schedule for Gruff Rhys’ Seeking New Gods Tour is as follows:

21/10/21 – Crookes Social Club – Sheffield
22/10 – Storey’s Field Centre – Cambridge
23/10 – Albert Hall – Manchester
26/10 – O2 Academy 2 – Oxford
27/10 – Electric Ballroom – London
29/10 – Dolan’s Warehouse – Limerick
30/10 – Liberty Hall Theatre – Dublin
01/11 – Komedia – Bath
02/11 – Wedgewood Rooms – Southsea
03/11 – Norwich Arts Centre – Norwich

A statement posted on Crowded House’s social media channels today read: “For obvious reasons we are postponing our UK/Europe tour to 2022. Thanks everyone for being so understanding and staying strong through this crazy time. We cannot wait to be playing music for you all. What a cathartic time it will be.”

For obvious reasons we are postponing our UK/Europe tour to 2022. Thanks everyone for being so understanding and staying strong through this crazy time. We cannot wait to be playing music for you all. What a cathartic time it will be.
Crowded House pic.twitter.com/yxfCNIJCby

— Crowded House (@CrowdedHouseHQ) March 31, 2021

The Australasian five-piece, led passionately as always by multi-talented Kiwi frontman Neil Finn, are set to release their seventh studio album Dreamers Are Waiting on June 4th this year; their first new record in eleven years. The LP, which was recorded in Los Angeles and New Zealand on either side of 2020 Covid-19 lockdowns, will be the first Crowded House album to feature Neil Finn’s sons Liam (guitar) and Elroy (drums) as fully-fledged band members.

Finn Senior has hinted that the new record will represent a change in direction for the group, who scored a succession of hits across the globe in the 1980s and 1990s with the likes of Don’t Dream It’s Over, Weather With You, Fall At Your Feet, Locked Out, Better Be Home Soon, Four Seasons In One Day and Not The Girl You Think You Are. Finn, who is also a member of Fleetwood Mac (having replaced Lindsey Buckingham in 2018) told NME: “I’ve always been afraid of just repeating the same formulas, and somehow this feels like a fresh and authentic way to reapproach Crowded House today with an awareness of all our history and where, how and why it began in the first place.”

The band unveiled the debut single from the new LP, Whatever You Want, last October. Speaking about the contemporary pertinence of the lyrics, Neil Finn told ABC: “I guess in the year we’re in, and in the age of misinformation and untruth and propaganda and stuff, the idea that there’s a lot of people saying whatever they think that people want to hear – or, alternatively, what their boss wants to hear – is an interesting thought. It could sometimes just be the voices in your own head doing mischief and reassuring you about your own fears and anxieties. But the ‘yes men’ and the enablers, it’s kind of directed to them.”

A follow-up single, To The Island, was released last month. The melodic number also provided a title for Crowded House’s 2021 tour of the Finns’ native New Zealand – with the group playing to adoring capacity crowds in scenes that will doubtless prompt tinges of envy among live music fans in the Northern Hemisphere.

Crowded House’s 2022 UK Tour schedule is as follows:

05/06/22 – Roundhouse – London
07/06 – Roundhouse – London
08/06 – Roundhouse – London
10/06 – SSE Hydro – Glasgow
11/06 – Open Air Theatre – Scarborough
13/06 – Motorpoint Arena – Cardiff
14/06 – Utilita Arena – Birmingham
30/06 – Castlefield Bowl – Manchester

Lyrically, the track seems to embrace the notion of hurtling headlong into the uncertainty of the future: “Don’t fear the move out of the past/ Let time take your hand and guide you/ It’s time to move/ Into the blue once again.” In an interview with American Songwriter, singer Rhiannon ‘Ritzy’ Bryan noted: “‘Into The Blue’ is about surrendering to love and magic, having the courage to enjoy a new journey and the mystery and excitement of something unexpected. It’s about opening  your eyes to beauty and love again, making it to the other side. Whilst not conceived as a metaphor for the times we all live in now, it certainly turned out that way.”

Formed in their native North Wales in 2007, the Joy Formidable burst onto the scene with their debut EP A Balloon Called Moaning (2008), with a first full-length LP following three years later in the shape of aptly-titled The Big Roar. The album repurposed several songs from the debut EP – notably previous singles Austere, Cradle and Whirring – and brought them to a new transatlantic audience, with the record landing at number #8 in the influential Billboard Heatseekers Album Chart in the US. In keeping with the theme of bringing their melodic noise-rock stylings to a new cohort of listeners, later on in 2011 the group’s track Endtapes made its way onto the soundtrack for The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1, appearing alongside hit singles from the likes of Bruno Mars (It Will Rain) and Christina Perri (A Thousand Years).

Two further Joy Formidable records would follow in Wolf’s Law (2013) and Hitch (2016), with each LP enjoying scaling the top 20 of the US Billboard Alternative Charts. The band’s fourth and most recent album AAARTH (a stylised version of the Welsh translation of  ‘bear’ – ‘arth’) arrived in 2018, spawning two new singles in Dance of the Lotus and The Wrong Side.

The LP was well-received, with Glide Magazine hailing its “aggressive collection of pulse-pounding hard rock that deftly combines raw power with melodic hooks”, while DIY called it a statement album “of compositional daring and fierce experimentation.” Elsewhere the Indiecator wrote “By the time ‘Hitch’ was released, the Joy Formidable already felt like a multifaceted band. They could repeatedly blow your speakers, show off some totally unexpected rhythms, and even occasionally take things down a notch. ‘AAARTH’ takes all of these skills and stretches them even further towards their breaking point, once again showing the band’s dexterity. With something for everyone, it might not satisfy all listeners all the time, but its new reaches and complexities show that the Joy Formidable have earned their place as one most intriguing indie rock bands out there.“

Pleased to announce that we will be headlining @KendalCalling festival on Saturday 31st July! For more info about the event, please go to https://t.co/bJ0qfg5WWl pic.twitter.com/qnIOGId7t9

— stereophonics (@stereophonics) March 26, 2021

2021 will mark the festival’s fifteenth anniversary, with the annual Cumbrian bash kicking off back in 2006 with headline sets from Pendulum and British Sea Power. Since then, the Kendal Calling stage has been graced by the likes of Manic Street Preachers, Suede, Echo & The Bunnymen, Calvin Harris, Nile Rodgers and Chic, Snoop Dogg and Public Enemy.

Festival co-founders Andy Smith and Ben Robinson spoke to NME about their building excitement for the festival’s return after a Coronavirus-enforced hiatus in 2020. They said “It’s a great feeling to be able to announce the return of Kendal Calling in 2021. Not being able to celebrate together in the fields last year has only heightened anticipation for our return this July with a lineup that truly captures what Kendal Calling is all about…It’s sure to be an unforgettable moment stepping back into Lowther Deer Park this July and we can’t wait to have you all join us.”

Stereophonics, who headlined Kendal Calling in 2017 as part of a triple-bill with compatriots the Manics and Scottish art-rockers Franz Ferdinand, will return to the live stage fresh off the back of frontman Kelly Jones’ reflective solo album Don’t Let The Devil Take Another Day.  The LP, released last December, included reimagined versions of a clutch of the Aberdare band’s classic hits – including Hurry Up And Wait, Mr Writer, Local Boy In The Photograph, Maybe Tomorrow, Traffic, Just Looking and Dakota – as well as a series of covers. Jones told fans that the track selection for the record – which came ten years after the tragic death of the band’s charismatic and much-loved original drummer Stuart Cable – “pulled together the songs that got him through the worst of times, whilst telling stories of how those songs came about.”

Supergrass‘ set at Kendal Calling will form part of a busy summer schedule for the Oxford outfit, who are also due to perform at Nottinghamshire’s Splendour Festival, Camper Calling in Warwickshire and the South Facing Festival at Crystal Palace in London. The band reformed in 2019 after a nine-year break.

Fellow South Facing headliner Dizzee Rascal‘s appearance at Kendal Calling will provide the festival veteran with an opportunity to perform songs from his well-received 2020 album E3 AF. In their review of his seventh studio LP, Clash praised the Bow product for “navigating the perilous landscape of 2020 with remarkable assurance“, adding that “few other UK rappers can genuinely say they’re making some of their best work 20 years in the game – staying true to his roots while absorbing the sounds that currently defined East London, Dizzee has pulled off something special.”

Stockport alt-rock merchants Blossoms will take to the stage at Kendal Calling with a 2020 hit record of their own under their belt. Their third LP – Foolish Loving Spaces – was their second UK chart-topper. The group will tour Britain and Europe next autumn before providing support to The Killers on their 2022 UK Tour. The Streets also take to the festival circuit with new music in their locker. The Mike Skinner-led unit released their first new mixtape in nine years in 2020 in the form of twelve-track collection None of Us Are Getting Out of This Life Alive, which reached number #2 in the Official UK Albums Chart.

Get ready for 2 hours of @superfurry hits and hidden gems with our listening party for Corona Logic this Friday at 7pm!

The album is the brainchild of @jon_safari and is in aid of @LlamauUK

Free to download via Bandcamp from Friday, but please donate at https://t.co/ByWeXABrn5 pic.twitter.com/yLGe7uDpWB

— Welsh Music Podcast | Podlediad Miwsig Cymreig (@welshmusicpod) March 23, 2021

Mlynarsk spoke about the idea behind the album in an interview with Nation.Cymru, saying “The whole premise of this is that it gives musicians who don’t have anything to do because they’re in lockdown, it gives them something to do. It keeps them busy and gives them something to focus on. It also raises a few quid for a brilliant charity and it’s a nice way to say thank you to the Super Furries for being amazing.”

He added “I approached the bands and asked them to give me two song choices. I then gave them one song to work on, and worked so that there was no duplication. Everyone loved the idea, because let’s face it, everyone loves Super Furry Animals and was keen to pay tribute to them.”

28 different artists feature on the covers album, which is divided into two volumes of fourteen songs. Volume One includes contributions from 2019 Welsh Music Prize winners Adwaith (covering 1997 Super Furry Animals single Demons), Sheffield-based bilingual four-piece Sister Wives (covering Pan ddaw’r wawr from 2000 Welsh language album Mwng) and Carmarthen noise-poppers Los Blancos, who cover the Furries’ second single God! Show Me Magic. Volume One also features contributions from the likes of Dutch-Welsh singer-songwriter Accü; Swansea rockers Bandicoot; Cardiff-based post-punk outfit Sybs; Colorama vocalist Carwyn Ellis; and Wibidi, the side-project of former Super Furry Animals band members Dafydd Ieuan and Cian Ciaran.

Volume Two includes covers of the band’s stunning 2001 electronic soul-pop number Juxtapozed with U (performed by Church Village psychedelic rockers CVC); alleged tribute to hard-tackling Welsh midfielder Robbie Savage Golden Retriever (covered by Carys Eleri and Branwen Munn); and seminal 1996 track The Man Don’t Give a Fuck (performed by South Walian grunge-punk quartet Clwb Fuzz). Among the other contributors to Volume Two are Llanelli indie veterans The Hepburns; Boo Radleys guitarist Martin Carr; Merthyr rock collective Al Moses; and Scott Howells, formerly the frontman for Aberdare band The Broken Vinyl Club.

Corona Logic, which is accompanied by new artwork from longtime Super Furry Animals’ collaborator Pete Fowler, is available to stream and download on Bandcamp this Friday 26th March 2021. Whilst the band themselves remain on hiatus, singer Gruff Rhys is gearing up to release his seventh studio album as a solo artist. The new LP – Seeking New Gods – arrives on May 21st via Rough Trade, with Rhys unveiling lead single Loan Your Loneliness earlier this month.

Speaking to NME about the new record, the Haverfordwest-born troubadour said “The album is about people and the civilizations, and the spaces people inhabit over periods of time. How people come and go but the geology sticks around and changes more slowly. I think it’s about memory and time.“

The EP’s penultimate track, The Mersey Line, serves as a musical tribute to the singer’s adopted hometown of Liverpool. Describing the song to The Rodeo, Pixey said “This is one of the first tracks I wrote for the EP and it’s probably my favourite. I was sitting on Parr Street and I just got a sort of jingle in my head and this tune just came out in about 20 minutes. This was also one of the first tracks I played the drums on. It’s an ode to a place I’ve always liked to call home.”

MY EP ‘Free To Live In Colour’ IS FINALLY OUT !!! Thank you so much for everyone who has been streaming and showing me your support it feels completely surreal

Streaaam here – https://t.co/BnRL07dy2P pic.twitter.com/MsE417dYqr

— Pixey (@pixeyofficial) March 23, 2021

In a post to her Instagram followers ahead of the release of the EP, Pixey (real name Lizzie Hillesdon) said: “It feels unreal to think this time last year I was only making music for myself going into first lockdown. Now we’re still in a lockdown but I can’t believe how much has changed in a year with the help of some truly amazing people…Still can’t wrap my head around youse listening to my tunes, but I truly wouldn’t change it for the world. I hope you love my newest EP as much as I do and I love you with all my heart.”

Early reviews for the new collection of songs have been glowingly positive. DIY called the EP “warm and vibrant“, a “solid introduction to a sparky new pop personality” and “a perfect antidote to those winter chills”; while When The Horn Blows‘ Laura Freyaldenhoven said it “solidifies Pixey’s remarkable talent and immediately addictive sound.” Freyaldenhoven adds: “With a record that proves she can nail just about any genre, the sky is the limit for this astonishing artist.”

In an interview with DIY, Pixey spoke about her ambitions to make a feelgood EP. She said “I wanted to make a record that explored every side of being able to create what you want to create, and do what you wanna do, and not let anything stand in your way. But I also wanted something that you could forget about all that stuff and just dance to as well. I never thought I’d get this far and this is just the first step, so it’s really exciting to just be able to even think about what’s next. I had so many years of everything being so complicated, it’s nice to just make stuff that is completely uncomplicated, and I can give that to people and give them the escape that I wanted back then.”

The track listing for the Free To Live In Colour EP is as follows:

1. Just Move
2. California
3. Electric Dream
4. The Mersey Line
5. Free To Live In Colour