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Sep 20, 2024 By Mark Redfern Photography by Kalpesh Lathigra

The WAEVE—aka Rose Elinor Dougall and Blur guitarist Graham Coxon—have released a new album, City Lights, today via Transgressive. Now that the album is out, you can stream the whole thing here. Also they have shared new live performance videos for two songs from the album, “Moth to the Flame” and “Song For Eliza May,” as part of their City Lights Sessions series. Check out the album and live videos below. We’ve also included YouTube embeds for the studio version of “Song For Eliza May” and the epic near-eight-minute long song “Druantia,” just because we thought these album tracks deserved extra attention.

The band shared the album’s title track, “City Lights,” in May. It was one of our Songs of the Week. When the album was announced in June, they shared its second single, “You Saw,” via a music video. It was also one of our Songs of the Week. Then they shared its third single, “Broken Boys,” along with a live performance video for the song. “Broken Boys” was #1 on our Songs of the Week list.

City Lights is the band’s sophomore album and follows the duo’s self-titled debut album, which came out last year via Transgressive and was one of our Top 100 Albums of 2023.

As with their debut album, James Ford (Arctic Monkeys, Florence & The Machine, Foals, HAIM) produced City Lights. As with their last album, the album features Coxon on saxophone, among other instruments.

Coxon and Dougall first met backstage at a charity concert in London in 2020 and soon the idea was hatched for them to collaborate.

“I didn’t know when I was going to work again or try writing again until Rose came out and said, ‘How about we try writing together?’” says Coxon in a press release.

“When I listen to the first album, I can hear me and Graham getting to know each other through making the record,” says Dougall.

They not only hit off musically, but romantically, falling in love and having a baby daughter together, Eliza, who was born in August 2022.

“The band had an identity this time around so we had a little bit more of a framework to know how we might operate,” says Dougall of the differences between recording to the two albums. “But obviously, the circumstances were quite different.”

Dougall says she was initially reluctant to write songs about her daughter. “I was really resistant for a while to even consider referencing it,” she says. “But actually, when I realized that I could use that experience to explore bigger themes—watching what’s happening in the news, all these terrible atrocities and the world falling apart. And in tandem with that, thinking about how life evolves and how my own sense of self has developed. It became a really good vehicle for the songwriting process.”

The album’s “Song For Eliza May” is an ode to their daughter.

“The first record was a way of escaping the constrictions of what was going on in the world,” continues Dougall. “I think this one was a way of railing against the more domestic constraints that we had. That’s partly where some of the urgency of some of the songs come from.”

“This album is definitely more neurotic and more grumpy—and that comes from me!” says Coxon. “I’ve always liked to be pretty straightforward about feelings, whether they’re ugly or beautiful, and I’ve always approached sound in the same way. I don’t always think that sound needs to be comfortable to listen to. That dynamic of putting discomfort next to something that is really lovely is something that I’ve always been interested in.”

The WAEVE were interviewed in Issue 71 of our print magazine (get it here).

Dougall was also one of the artists on the cover of our special 20th Anniversary print issue, where you can read an exclusive interview with her.

Dougall released her last solo album, A New Illusion, her third, in April 2019 via Vermillion (it was our Album of the Week and one of our Top 100 Albums of 2019). She was also previously in The Pipettes.

Read our interview with Dougall on A New Illusion.

Also read our interview with Dougall on her all-time favorite album.

Plus read our review of A New Illusion.

Coxon’s last solo album was 2012’s A+E, but he’s kept busy with soundtrack work, including releasing two albums of songs and score from the acclaimed TV show The End of the F***ing World and his 2021 score to the comic book Superstate. His memoir, Verse, Chorus, Monster!, got a U.S. release last year via Faber Books. Blur also released a new album last year, The Ballad of Darren.

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