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May 16, 2023 By Mark Redfern

London trio Girl Ray are releasing a new album, Prestige, on August 4 via Moshi Moshi. Now they have shared another new song from it, “Up,” and announced some new UK and European tour dates. Check out “Up” and the dates below.

Girl Ray’s singer/guitarist Poppy Hankin had this to say about “Up” in a press release: “This song was written at the beginning of my current relationship, and it deals with all the emotions of a fledgling romance: adoration, self-doubt, and everything in between! Musically we wanted to pay homage to the sparseness of Queen’s ‘Cool Cat,’ and the groove of Bowie’s ‘Fame.’”

Ben H Allen (Gnarls Barkley, Animal Collective, MIA, Belle & Sebastian) produced Prestige. Girl Ray also features Iris McConnell and Sophie Moss.

The album includes “Everybody’s Saying That,” a new song Girl Ray shared in February via a music video (it was one of our Songs of the Week). In 2021, the trio shared the album’s closing track, “Give Me Your Love,” which was produced by Joe Goddard and Al Doyle from Hot Chip and was also one of our Songs of the Week. When Prestige was announced in April they shared another new song from it, “Hold Tight,” via an amusing music video. “Hold Tight” was again one of our Songs of the Week.

Also in 2021, they shared a cover of Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s 2001 song “Murder on the Dancefloor,” via a music video.

The trio also took part in our 20th Anniversary Covers of Covers album last year, covering HAIM’s “Another Try.”

Their most recent album, Girl, came out in 2019 via Moshi Moshi.

In 2020 we posted a mini-documentary on Girl Ray, where we visited their home studio. Watch the James Loveday-directed film here.

Also read our My Firsts interview with the band from 2019.

Girl was the follow-up to their 2017-released debut album, Earl Grey (it was our Album of the Week and #3 on our Top 15 Debut Albums of 2017 list).

Read our Pleased to Meet You interview with Girl Ray and check out our exclusive photo shoot with the band.

Girl Ray UK and European Tour Dates:

Day/Month

04/08 - London, Rough Trade East
09/08 - Nottingham, Rough Trade Nottingham
10/08 - Bristol, Rough Trade Bristol
17/08 - Brecon Beacons, Green Man Festival
12/11 - Amsterdam, Paradiso
13/11 - Hamburg, Aalhaus
14/11 - Copenhagen, Ideal Bar
16/11 - Berlin, Marie-Antoinette
17/11 - Brussels, Witloof Bar
20/11 - Paris, Boule Noire
21/11 - Brighton, Patterns
22/11 - Bristol, Fleece
24/11 - Manchester, The Soup Kitchen
25/11 - Glasgow, Room 2
26/11 - Dublin, The Workmans Club
28/11 - Leeds, Belgrave Music Hall
29/11 - Nottingham, Rescue Rooms
03/12 - London, Village Underground

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