• News

• All

Apr 26, 2023 By Mark Redfern Photography by Andy Willsher

England’s The Clientele have announced a new album, I Am Not There Anymore, and shared its first single, “Blue Over Blue,” via a music video. I Am Not There Anymore is due out July 28 via Merge. Check out “Blue Over Blue” below, followed by the album’s tracklist and cover artwork, as well as the band’s upcoming tour dates.

The Clientele is led by vocalist/lyricist/guitarist Alasdair MacLean and also features bassist James Hornsey and drummer Mark Keen. I Am Not There Anymore is the follow-up to 2017’s Music for the Age of Miracles, which was the band’s first new album in seven years. Sessions for the new album began in 2019, but took a while because of the pandemic and the band’s desire to experiment in the studio.

“We’d always been interested in music other than guitar music, like for donkey’s years,” says MacLean in a press release, with post-bop jazz, contemporary classical, and electronic music all cited as new influences for the band. “None of those things had been able to find their way into our sound other than in the most passing way, in the faintest imprint.”

The lyrics on I Am Not There Anymore are partially inspired by memories of the death of MacLean’s mother in the summer of 1997, a delayed sense of mourning. He all says the album is about “the memory of childhood but at the same time the impossibility of truly remembering childhood… or even knowing who or what you are.”

MacLean says the album’s first single is about getting lost in the woods in London with his son, a scary adventure: “‘Blue Over Blue’ is about getting lost in the woods on Hampstead Heath on an autumn day with my two-year-old son on my shoulders—he loved it and wanted to play hide and seek. I knew he was a ticking time bomb as I had no food with me and was trying to find my way back to a path.”

I Am Not There Anymore Tracklist:

1. Fables of the Silverlink
2. Radial B
3. Garden Eye Mantra
4. Segue 4 (iv)
5. Lady Grey
6. Dying in May
7. Conjuring Summer In
8. Radial C (Nocturne for Three Trees)
9. Blue Over Blue
10. Radial E
11. Claire’s Not Real
12. My Childhood
13. Chalk Flowers
14. Radial H
15. Hey Siobhan
16. Stems of Anise
17. Through the Roses
18. I Dreamed of You, Maria
19. The Village Is Always on Fire

The Clientele Tour Dates:

Fri. July 28 - London, UK @ Rough Trade East
Wed. Aug. 9 - Somerville, MA @ Crystal Ballroom at Somerville Theatre
Thu. Aug. 10 - New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
Fri. Aug. 11 - Philadelphia, PA @ Underground Arts
Sat. Aug. 12 - Washington, DC @ Songbyrd
Sun. Aug. 13 - Durham, NC @ Motorco Music Hall
Tue. Aug. 15 - Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall
Thu. Aug. 17 - Los Angeles, CA @ Lodge Room
Fri. Aug. 18 - Pioneertown, CA @ Pappy and Harriet’s
Sat. Aug. 19 - Big Sur, CA @ Fernwood Tavern (inside)
Sun. Aug. 20 - San Francisco, CA @ The Chapel
Tue. Aug. 22 - Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios
Wed. Aug. 23 - Seattle, WA @ Tractor Tavern

Support Under the Radar on Patreon.