Bruno Major to Release New Album 'Columbo' in July
The new album will be released on July 21.
By: Michael Major May. 23, 2023
U.K. singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Bruno Major announces his new album Columbo, to be released on July 21st via Harbour Artists & Music / AWAL Recordings. Pre-save the album HERE. He also unveils the album’s title track, “Columbo.”
Columbo is Bruno’s highly-anticipated follow up to 2020’s To Let a Good Thing Die. The 12-track body of work weaves the autobiographical with the observational and stretches Bruno’s palette into new forms, yielding the most accomplished and “honest” expression of his music to date. When the COVID-19 pandemic struck in early 2020, Bruno was holed up at his parents’ house in Northampton, where he first faced a blank slate, followed quickly by personal crisis.
When restrictions lifted, he hotfooted to Los Angeles and hired a vintage ivory white 1978 Mercedes 380SL – he named it Columbo. It was on one fateful day during LA’s golden hour that his car came to its own abrupt end, plowing into another vehicle. It was there that the melancholic melody for “Columbo,” the album’s wistful title track, emerged, and so the story goes.
“Columbo” pairs Bruno’s ethereal voice with a simple guitar melody, resulting in a track evocative of the classic American songbook. Paul Simon’s influence courses through the title track’s intricate guitar pattern and aching vocals as Bruno’s harmonies multiply and swell into a stunning vocal apex. The song conjures feelings of Spring, while the lyrics tell a different story, of love, loss, and freedom. Its accompanying visualizer plays into the nostalgia evoked by the star of the music video, Bruno’s 1978 Mercedes 380SL. A vintage, film-like filter coats each shot, emphasizing the timeless beauty of “Columbo.”
“Something I've managed to do with Columbo more than any other album is find a way of saying exactly what I want to say,” Bruno reveals. “The album investigates my personal relationships with people and other things. It is self-diagnosis on a grand scale.”
Columbo raises its curtain with “The Show Must Go On,” a piano flourish giving way to a clean, snare-less drum pattern and guitar strum that conjures the cozy fireside intimacy of Neil Young’s “Out on the Weekend.” Elsewhere, “Tell Her" is a slice of simmering R&B, while the heart-breaking “Tears in Rain” is dedicated to his late grandmother.
“The End” rounds off the album, featuring a soaring solo that recalls perennial influence, Queen, and more pertinently, Brian May. Columbo is Bruno Major’s defining statement to date. A musician who wears his heart (and art) on his sleeve, this is the sound of an artist who risked it all and somehow made it back to shore.
The latest single and album title track follows “We Were Never Really Friends”released earlier this month to critical acclaim. Billboard chronicles the track as “...a classic spoil-the-friendship jam that masquerades as a piano ballad before blooming into a lighters-up rock sing-along, complete with a stringy guitar solo.
Major’s patience stands out here: the British singer-songwriter never presses too hard in any direction on the song, letting the full instrumentation and the slight quiver in his voice carry home his first new music since 2020.”
Ones To Watch raves, “‘We Were Never Really Friends’ is a stunning re-introduction for Bruno Major. Glimmering with all of the heart-aching tones we know the songwriter for, alongside lively classic rock influences, this song hints at exciting ventures in this new era [for the artist]” and Genius praises its “piano-driven ’70s sound reminiscent of The Beatles and Elton John.”
Marking a triumphant return to the stage after his 2020 tour was canceled due to COVID, Bruno will kick off an expansive headlining tour in Tokyo on August 8th, making his way through major cities in Southeast Asia before heading back to the United States for a night in Denver, CO on September 4th.
Over the next two months he’ll tour the US before beginning the European leg of his ambitious journey, in Cologne, Germany on November 8th. The tour will conclude on November 23rd in his hometown of London. See below for the full tour routing.
More to come from Bruno Major in 2023.
UPCOMING HEADLINING TOUR DATES:
August 8 – Tokyo, Japan – WWW X
August 11 – Seoul, South Korea – YES24 Live Hall *SOLD OUT
August 13 – Bangkok, Thailand – Voice Space
August 15 – Manila, Philippines – Samsung Performing Arts Theater *SOLD OUT
August 17 – Singapore, Singapore – Capitol Theatre *SOLD OUT
August 19 – Jakarta, Indonesia – GBK Basketball Hall *SOLD OUT
August 20 – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Zepp Kuala Lumpur
September 4 – Denver, CO - Ogden Theatre
September 5 – Salt Lake City, UT - The Depot
September 7 – Vancouver, BC - Commodore Ballroom *SOLD OUT
September 8 – Seattle, WA - The Showbox @ The Market
September 9 – Portland, OR - McMenamins Crystal Ballroom
September 11 – San Francisco, CA - The Warfield
September 14 – Los Angeles, CA - The Wiltern *SOLD OUT
September 15 – San Diego, CA - The Observatory North Park
September 16 – Phoenix, AZ - The Van Buren
September 18 – Dallas, TX - Granada Theater
September 19 – Austin, TX - The Mohawk
September 20 – Houston, TX - White Oak Music Hall
September 22 – Atlanta, GA - The Masquerade
September 23 – Nashville, TN - Brooklyn Bowl
September 25 – Chicago, IL - Vic Theatre
September 26 – Toronto, ON - HISTORY
September 29 – New York, NY - Terminal 5
September 30 – Boston, MA - Roadrunner
October 1 – Washington, DC - The Howard Theatre
November 8 – Cologne, DE - CBE
November 9 – Berlin, DE – Kesselhaus
November 11 – Antwerp, BE – Trix
November 12 – Amsterdam, NL – Melkweg
November 14 – Paris, FR – Le Trabendo
November 17 – Glasgow, UK – Saint Luke’s
November 18 – Manchester, UK – Academy 2
November 21 – Dublin, IE – Vicar Street
November 23 – London, UK – O2 Forum Kentish Town
ABOUT BRUNO MAJOR:
The word “authenticity” has become ubiquitous when describing artists and musicians today, but when you encounter Bruno Major, you understand just how misused that term has become. Bruno has ascended the ranks to become, by many definitions, a globally influential artist, but has done so entirely on his own terms.
The antihero of music stardom, Bruno has been completely uncompromising in his craft, creating unrivaled lyrical landscapes that don’t conform to the musical status quo of today, but still deeply resonate with fans, as evidenced by his billion stream career, propelled by viral hits “Nothing” and “Easily.”
Bruno splices classic singer-songwriter confessionals with sleek modern electronic production, girding the entire enterprise with hints of soul. His dedication to sincerity and immediacy in his craft was solidified via his 2017 debut record A Song For Every Moon.
Recorded and released independently, the record gained powerful word-of-mouth momentum internationally with key single “Easily” RIAA-certified Platinum in North America. Its 2020 follow-up, To Let a Good Thing Die was similarly far reaching, a beautifully crafted tapestry of stories of human relationships, love and heartbreak, and existential musings; one single, “The Most Beautiful Thing,” emerged from a special co-writing session with producer and pop luminary FINNEAS, and another standout track “Nothing” is RIAA-certified Gold in North America. Across the two albums, Bruno has amassed over 1.5 billion collective streams to date.
Bruno is trained as a classical guitarist and has earned support from the likes of Sam Smith, Billie Eilish, Shawn Mendes, Charlie Puth, Lianne La Havas, Hailey Bieber, and Kourtney Kardashian, to name a few. Prior to the pandemic, he toured extensively, selling over 50,000 headline tickets, made his TV debut on the Late Late Show with James Corden, his festival debut at Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival, and opened for Sam Smith’s European arena tour. Now in 2023, as he divides his time between London and Los Angeles, he prepares for his first release in three years—his most ambitious album yet.
photo credit: Neil Krug
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