When asked about the album Thorpe, stated that’s its main theme revolved around “the meeting point between science and religion, the grand struggle for reality that shapes so much of our time.” and he went on to say “What about nature? What about the cosmos? What about all these things that break through the tyranny of the self? Our sense organs bring the world inside of us after all, I just had to sing it back out. I was enchanted again with the mystery of science and how I might speak from the heart in an age where metric is gospel.”

This latest record has been previewed by a music video directed by Tom Haines for the first rather cosmic single ‘The Universe Is Always Right’.
The Cumbrian born singer/songwriter will showcase his new album with two live UK dates in October of this year. Thorpe will play in his hometown of Kendal at the Brewery Arts Centre on October 9, before coming to Chat’s Palace in London for the release date of the LP on October 15. These shows will then be followed up by a now rescheduled UK and European tour in support of Jon Hopkins.

The album as will be appreciated by environmentalists can be pre-ordered on climate-conscious, plastic-free vinyl here.

‘Moondust For My Diamond’ Tracklist:

1. Material World
2. The Universe Is Always Right
3. No Such Thing
4. Parallel Kingdom
5. Golden Ratio
6. Metafeeling
7. Supersensual
8. Hotel November Tango
9. Rational Heartache
10. Spherical Time II
11. Suspended Animation
12. Runaway World

The band have also confirmed three farewell shows, running from February 15-17 next year in Dublin, Manchester, and a final date at London’s Hammersmith Apollo.

pic.twitter.com/WTGi0JBS6D

— Wild Beasts (@WildBeasts) September 25, 2017

 The band first confirmed their split through a post on their Twitter, and confirmed that all four band members had concluded that it was “time to leave this orbit”.

Several bands, including Foals and Everything Everything, have paid tribute to Wild Beasts after this announcement, taking to Twitter to express their love for the soon-retired group.

We always looked up to this band. Their influence on us has been huge and it won't be the same without them. Long live @WildBeasts x https://t.co/wqqxBxFOAg

— EverythingEverything (@E_E_) September 25, 2017

Frontman Hayden Thorpe also spoke directly to NME about the band’s split, as well as the bands members’ plans for the future.  “I guess any band is a remarkable feat of human endeavour in that you function with this sort of synchronicity, you’re in clockwork with one another, you hold gravity on one another. We’ve always been a full-blooded band and we never really wanted to compromise. Boy King [the band’s final album, released in 2016] was as provocative as our first record [2008’s Limbo, Panto], so we thought that this is our story arc. It felt a loving thing to do. It’s like watching the end of a sparkler finish up, it was as hot and dazzling as when we first got going. But rather than huddle around the glowing embers, we decided to extinguish it.”

When asked if the break-up was an amicable one, Thorpe confirmed that it “Absolutely” was, continuing  “Although our stories are all individual, we all had the same love and care for what we had created. […] If you look at our band, there was a certain sense that you couldn’t take one person away and it still be intact. That’s something I’m proud of.”

When quizzed about what the future held for both him and his bandmates, Thorpe was again very honest, admitting “At this stage, I very much don’t know. Our focus at the moment is on the final chapter of the band. But there’s something beautiful about not knowing what will come next.

“There is a sense of ‘what will I do without the gang?’ In many ways I feel like I need to go into the witness protection programme and try to figure out if I’m allowed to speak about what I’ve seen, done, the vast array of lifetime I’ve lived over the past few years. Being in a band has been a very visceral, spontaneous and powerful time.”