James Mabbett returns to his Napoleon IIIrd project this May for his first album in six years, entitled The Great Lake.
Above, you can watch a video, directed by Paul and Simon Wade, for ‘The Scrape’, which features on the album. "’The Scrape’ is the point where sorrow become destructive," says Mabbett. "We shot ‘The Scrape’ in a flood damaged, abandoned automotive silicon hose factory in Mirfield, West Yorkshire. The building was raised to the ground just weeks after this film was shot and a Lidl is to be built in its place. I think somehow and in some way, this might be kind of fitting. The price of love is grief and grief can be so hard we can forget what love is. I am a temporary carbon marker. I am merely conjoined space. Like death, the fight to survive consumes us."
The album, made up of five tracks, was born in part from Mabbett’s move from Yorkshire to London in 2011, subsequently spending a number of years amongst the markedly more chaotic metropolis that the city had to offer before later returning to West Yorkshire.
Having returned there, James set about reconvening his band, and inviting others to contribute to the recording of new music. The album, most interestingly, sees musician Oli Bentley play saxophone, an instrument that Mabbett had a previous aversion to but chose to place at the centre of the new record as a means of challenging himself.
The death of Mabbett’s grandparents within the space of one year played a large role lyrically on the album, with the musician choosing to focus on the stages of grief as a result. The tracks were recorded in the space of four weeks and will see release on May 19. You can pre-order the album here.
