Exactly three years since the release of his last solo LP, John Grant returns with his new album Love Is Magic, released 12th October on Bella Union in the UK & Europe and Partisan Records in the US. Grant has also shared the title track and first single to the album which is available below.
“Each record I make is more of an amalgamation of who I am,” says John Grant. “The more I do this, the more I trust myself, and the closer I get to making what I imagine in my head.”
On his fourth solo album Love Is Magic, Grant continues to evolve, creating his most electronic record yet, in collaboration with Benge (Ben Edwards), analogue synth expert/collector and a member of electronic trio Wrangler, Grant’s collaborators earlier this year under the collective name of Creep Show on the album Mr Dynamite.
Produced by Grant (together with Benge and Paul Alexander), and engineered by Benge at his Cornish studio, the diamond-hard, diamond-gleaming Love Is Magic, “is closer still to how I’ve always wanted my records to sound, but I didn’t know how to go about it,” Grant says. Already mentioned above, he also called on bassist Paul Alexander of Denton, Texas maestros Midlake, renewing a working relationship that began on Queen Of Denmark. “Paul trained in music theory at UNT in Denton, Texas with an emphasis in Jazz and I knew he would come up with beautiful harmonies, so I unleashed him on the backing vocals,” Grant enthuses. “He comes up with interesting angles rather than the obvious and also plays some of the best bass lines I’ve ever heard.”
Besides the quest for sound, “the lyrics, of course, continue to be very important to me,” says John. “They’re just snapshots of everyday life where myriad moods and every sort of horrible and hilarious occurrence one can imagine mix with the pedestrian resulting in the absurdity and beauty of life.”
Grant recently announced news of an extensive run of European tour dates for the rest of the year. Love Is Magic is released 12th October via Bella Union in the UK/Europe and Partisan in the US.
Love Is Magic tracklist & artwork:
1. Metamorphosis
2. Love Is Magic
3. Tempest
4. Preppy Boy
5. Smug Cunt
6. He’s Got His Mother’s Hips
7. Diet Gum
8. Is He Strange
9. The Common Snipe
10. Touch And Go