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May 17, 2021 By Mark Redfern Photography by Hörður Sveinsson

John Grant is releasing a new album, Boy from Michigan, on June 25 via Partisan in the U.S. (and Bella Union in the U.K.). Now he has shared the album’s third single, “Billy,” via a video for it. The song is the album’s closing track. The video version is a single edit of the song. Check that out below, followed by the slightly longer album version from Spotify. Casey and Ewan directed the “Billy” video.

“‘Billy’ is a song about how many men destroy themselves trying to live up to stereotypes of masculinity and how this manifests in countless ways,” says Grant in a press release.

Boy from Michigan was produced by Welsh musician Cate Le Bon. Previously Grant shared a video for the album’s title track, “Boy from Michigan,” which was one of our Songs of the Week. The album’s second single was the amusing and quite ’80s sounding “Rhetorical Figure,” a song about the sexiness of good grammar. “Rhetorical Figure” was shared via a lyric video and was also one of our Songs of the Week.

Boy from Michigan is the follow-up to 2018’s Love Is Magic and 2015’s Grey Tickles, Black Pressure. A press release says the album is Grant’s “most autobiographical and melodic work to date.”

Last year Grant also sang guest vocals on the Lost Horizons song “Cordelia.”

Also be sure to read our in-depth 2013 article on Grant, one of the most honest and personal interviews we’ve ever done.

Also read our 2015 interview with John Grant on Grey Tickles, Black Pressure.

Plus read our The End interview with John Grant.

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