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Feb 17, 2020 By Christopher Roberts Photography by Cat Stevens Tim Burgess

Tim Burgess of The Charlatans has announced a new solo album, I Love the New Sky, and shared its first single, “Empathy for the Devil,” via a video for the track. I Love the New Sky is due out May 22 via Bella Union. Directing duo AB/CD/CD directed the “Empathy for the Devil” video, which features a misunderstood Devil at a wedding and as a child. Watch it below, followed by the album’s tracklist and cover art, as well as Burgess’ upcoming tour dates.

While The Charlatans have been at it since 1988 and have released 13 studio albums, from 1990’s Some Friendly to 2017’s Different Days, with nine of them hitting the Top 10 in the UK (and three of those at #1), Burgess has also had a busy solo career (as well as being an author, a DJ, and running the O Genesis record label). I Love the New Sky is Burgess’ fifth solo album, but the first where he’s written all the songs himself after collaborating with Lambchop’s Kurt Wagner, Peter Gordon, and others on previous solo albums.

According to Burgess in a press release, the songs on I Love the New Sky were written “in Norfolk, in the middle of the countryside, with the nearest shop eight miles away. There are no distractions, and I guess that way things happen. I wrote everything on acoustic guitar, and the chords were really considered. The guitar lines would lead the melody, and the melody would inform the lyrics - just dreaming away with music.”

Daniel O’Sullivan of Grumbling Fur arranged and produced the album, as well as playing bass, drums, and piano. Burgess had previously recorded a song with Grumbling Fur and put out two of O’Sullivan’s solo albums on his O Genesis label (plus Grumbling fur have remixed The Charlatans). The I Love the New Sky sessions also featured keyboardist/multi-instrumentalist Thighpaulsandra (Julian Cope, Spiritualized, Elizabeth Fraser).

The press release says I Love the New Sky has “landed somewhere between Paul McCartney’s RAM and Brian Eno’s Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy).”

I Love the New Sky Tracklist:

1. Empathy For The Devil
2. Sweetheart Mercury
3. Comme D’Habitude
4. Sweet Old Sorry Me
5. Warhol Me
6. Lucky Creatures
7. The Mall
8. Timothy
9. Only Took A Year
10. I Got This
11. Undertow
12. Laurie

Tim Burgess Tour Dates:

3/12/2020 - New York, NY - Pianos
3/13/2020 - New York, NY - Berlin
3/14/2020 - New York, NY - The Delancey
3/19/2020 - Austin,TX - Palm Door
3/20/2020 - Austin,TX - Lazarus Brewing Co.
5/1/2020 - Newcastle, UK - Hit The North ‘Opening Party’ @ Think Tank
5/2/2020 - Leeds, UK - Live at Leeds
5/3/2020 - Liverpool, UK - Sound City
5/20/2020 - Nottingham, UK - Rough Trade
5/22/2020 - London, UK - Rough Trade East
5/24/2020 - Dartington, UK - Sea Change Festival
5/25/2020 - Bristol, UK - Rough Trade
5/27/2020 - Manchester, UK - Night & Day
6/6/2020 - Barcelona, ES - Primavera Sound
6/9/2020 - Nottingham, UK - Rescue Rooms
6/10/2020 - Kendal, UK - Brewery
6/12/2020 - Glasgow, UK - King Tut’s
6/14/2020 - Bristol, UK - Thekla
6/16/2020 - Cardiff, UK - Clwb Ifor Bach
6/17/2020 - Portsmouth, UK - Wedgewood Rooms
6/18/2020 - London, UK - Oslo
6/20/2020 - Manchester, UK - YES
7/26/2020 - North Yorkshire, UK - Deer Shed Festival

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