The Clientele share new track "Dying In May" | First LP since 2017, "I Am Not There Anymore" out July 28th on Merge
THE CLIENTELE SHARE NEW SINGLE "DYING IN MAY"
WATCH VIDEO HERE
NEW ALBUM "I AM NOT THERE ANYMORE"
OUT JULY 28TH ON MERGE
The Clientele, the cherished UK outfit composed of vocalist/lyricist/guitarist Alasdair MacLean, bassist James Hornsey and drummer Mark Keen, presents “Dying in May,” the new single from their forthcoming album, "I Am Not There Anymore" out July 28th on Merge.
On “Dying in May,” Keen’s live drums weave around programmed drum and bass samples, creating something polyrhythmic and avant-garde. Following the serene lead single “Blue Over Blue”, “Dying in May” elucidates the range of genres The Clientele explore on "I Am Not There Anymore", a 19-track journey that extends from light bossa nova beats to the band’s classic chamber pop.
Of the track, MacLean says: “I think "Dying in May" is the first Clientele song with no guitar. It also has no chords, as such — it’s a drone, with french horn, cello and Mellotron. So the rhythm does a lot of the work — the drums and percussion are in 9/8, but the singing and instruments are in 4/4, so as each bar goes past, there’s a slightly different rhythmic emphasis. This was a complete accident, but I loved it when I heard it — the patterns are a bit disorientating, but there’s a pulse that goes through it. I almost feel I could dance to this, but not quite. It’s based on an Arabic flamenco rhythm.
“The words are all fragmented too, simple images repeating, like someone in a high fever. I took some inspiration from cante jondo, Spanish flamenco - there tend to be two or three very focused, repetitive images in the words. There was no way in hell I could play guitar along with these rhythms, so I scored out a simple melody which would leave space for the drums, and be something the bass could latch on to. By the end, the words go over and over, like someone beside themselves with grief. Hence the title. It’s a harrowing subject, but I think it’s presented with love - the song hopefully opens it out and lets some air in. It feels like an exorcism for me.”
WATCH THE VIDEO FOR "DYING IN MAY" HERE
STREAM HERE
Over the 32-year career of the pop band The Clientele, critics and fans have often described their songs with words like “ethereal,” “shimmering,” “hazy,” “pretty” and “fragile.” MacLean, though, has his own interpretation of the effect his music creates. “It’s that feeling of not being there,” he says. “What’s really been in all the Clientele records is a sense of not actually inhabiting the moment that your body is in.”
"I Am Not There Anymore" regularly evokes what MacLean calls “the feeling of not being real.” A lot of the lyrics were inspired by MacLean’s memories of the early summer in 1997, when his mother died. Though the album functions as MacLean’s way of mourning, he notes that he’s not the kind of songwriter who ever sits down with a theme in mind. It’s more that “the music will bring images and then those images link of their own accord.” It’s a general mood he’s chasing with these loosely connected recollections. (For more of MacLean’s impressionistic words, spend some time with his book Exhaust Fumes, Magnolias & Light: Selected Lyrics 1997-2021, published by Edge of the Lane Press.)
The result is a 19-track journey that extends from light bossa nova beats to the Clientele’s classic chamber pop, with Keen’s live drums weaving around programmed drum and bass samples to create something polyrhythmic and avant-garde. Keen is also responsible for the spare and lovely instrumental interstitials that appear throughout the LP — all called “Radials,” as in “the spokes from the center of the wheel.” They “change the focus in between songs,” according to MacLean. “Without those tracks, everything might be a bit too heavy. They make you look away for a little while so you can look back again later.” There’s a similar purpose to the cover image, taken from the 1823 Kameda Bōsai painting Long Life. It’s both a beautiful piece of abstract art and a poem about, in MacLean’s words, “the distance and surprise of getting older.”
As MacLean says, "I Am Not There Anymore" 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.”
PRE-ORDER "I AM NOT THERE ANYMORE" HERE
As well as US dates to follow in August, the band will also play a London in-store at Rough Trade (buy tickets) in support of the record, performing at Rough Trade East on release day, Friday, 28th July.
THE CLIENTELE
I AM NOT THERE ANYMORE
OUT JULY 28TH ON MERGE
PRE-ORDER
1. Fables of the Silverlink
2. Radial B
3. Garden Eye Mantra
4. Segue 4 (iv)
5. Lady Grey
6. Dying in May
7. Conjuring Summer In
8. Radial C (Nocturne for Three Trees)
9. Blue Over Blue
10. Radial E
11. Claire’s Not Real
12. My Childhood
13. Chalk Flowers
14. Radial H
15. Hey Siobhan
16. Stems of Anise
17. Through the Roses
18. I Dreamed of You, Maria
19. The Village Is Always on Fire
