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Apr 09, 2019 Hayden Thorpe By Christopher Roberts

Hayden Thorpe, formerly the singer for British art-rockers Wild Beasts, has announced his debut solo album, Diviner, and has shared a new song from it, “Love Crimes,” via a video for the track. Diviner is due out May 24 via Domino. Back in February Thorpe shared the album’s title track, “Diviner,” via a video (it was one of our Songs of the Week). Check out the “Love Crimes” video below, followed by the album’s tracklist and cover art. Also below is the video for the title track again.

In 2017 Wild Beasts announced their breakup in a typed up statement, signed by the band and posted to Instagram. That was followed by a final EP, Punk Drunk and Trembling, three farewell concerts in February 2018, and a final album, February 2018’s live in the studio release Last Night All My Dreams Came True (which featured new interpretations of songs from across their catalogue).

Diviner was written in California, Cornwall, and at Thorpe’s home in London. Alexandra Liveris directed the “Love Crimes” video.

A press release describes the album as such: “Diviner is a deeply emotional album: lyrically generous in its candid tone and self-awareness, the melodies resonant with sense memory. The album feels like a startling departure from Thorpe’s previous work with Wild Beasts and also unlike anything else being made at the moment.”

Thorpe had this to say about the album in a press release: “My adulthood was based on a certain belief system, a band, a family. When it shifted entirely, I had a ghost I had to find a new haunt for…. I believe in the medicinal properties of songs. I believe in their healing properties, Songs defy time, they don’t erode or denature, they come with you and reform anew in your mind as and when you need them…. I broke up with myself. So this is a break-up album, but not about a relationship. It’s a break-up from a past self, it’s a breakup from the old idea of yourself and therefore every relationship, of all kinds, that you’ve ever had.”

Thorpe had this to say about the album’s title track in a previous press release: “‘Diviner’ became the first song and the divining rod for what was going to be next. There are, if we can wait for them, rare days of alignment. ‘Diviner’ was written on such a day, my birthday of all days. The curtains were drawn for a while, I went inside. To say I’m delighted to see daylight would be an understatement.”

Read our 2018 interview with Hayden Thorpe about the breakup of Wild Beasts and the band’s legacy.

Diviner Tracklist:

1. Diviner
2. Straight Lines
3. Earthly Needs
4. Love Crimes
5. Stop Motion
6. In My Name
7. Anywhen
8. Human Knot
9. Spherical Time
10. Impossible Object

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