James have announced a brand new album for release in March as well as a headline tour and, above, you can check out the video for ‘To My Surprise’ right now.
The track’s animated video makes no secret of its targets, most notable among them ongoing forms of conflict around the world. Their 14th studio album, the band consider Girl At The End Of The World their best yet having teamed up with producer Max Dingel as well as Brian Eno to work on the album.
“Bands talk about that difficult second album but it’s the trickster 14th one that’s the real M*&^%R F&%$#R,” says frontman Tim Booth of the new album. "As always with James it’s a collaborative process allowing ample room for improvisation, intuition, skill and dumb luck. From the outside our process looks like chaos but chaos is our friend and we have a history that gives us confidence that something magical will eventually appear. Most of my best lyrics are unconscious typos so don¹t ask me what it’s about; your projection is as good as mine. This was perhaps the most difficult and stressful album we have ever made. I hope you find it as rewarding as we do. OYSTER- GRIT-PEARL.”
The album is out on March 18 and the band will tour the UK in May with an extensive set of dates across the month including three London shows. You can check the full list of dates here.
