Jillette Johnson Releases New Horror-Inspired Music Video For 'Graveyard Boyfriend'

Today, Nashville-based singer/songwriter Jillette Johnson shares "Graveyard Boyfriend," the latest single off her forthcoming album It's A Beautiful Day And I Love You, which drops February 12. With a mildly macabre humor offset by a breezy '70's-style pop melody, "Graveyard Boyfriend" is about letting go of people from past relationships to fully enjoy the present. Released just in time for Halloween, the song is accompanied by a video montage of vintage horror film footage, which Sounds Like Nashville featured this morning, saying, "With the calming chill-rock sounds of her plaintive vocal, clean guitars and a bouncy organ behind her, Johnson sings of getting chased by an emotionally-dead zombie who will keep calling and texting 'til someone puts him out of his misery."

It's A Beautiful Day And I Love You is now available for pre-order on limited-edition vinyl, CD and more.

"'Graveyard Boyfriend' was inspired by the many awesome girl groups of the '60s, like the Shirelles and Diana Ross and The Supremes," says Johnson. "I was almost exclusively listening to Diana Ross's album 'Surrender' when I wrote it, though I know that came out in '71. The song is about cutting ties with the legacies of relationships that no longer serve you, and moving the hell on so you can enjoy a vibrant new, healthy love. It's like the shadow counterpart of another one of my songs, 'Annie,' which is about having gratitude for exes. It is possible to be simultaneously thankful for something, and to want to put it in the rear view mirror, and 'Graveyard Boyfriend' is all about the latter."

Jillette Johnson's first new album in four years, It's a Beautiful Day and I Love You is an impressive collection of candid lyricism and hard-won optimism. Fully immersed in music from a young age, Johnson quickly learned first-hand about the prevalence of predators in this volatile, ever-changing industry, and spent the last three years refocusing while writing almost nonstop. Now on the other side of a journey through pain and struggle to gratitude, forgiveness, and, ultimately, acceptance, It's a Beautiful Day and I Love You finds Johnson with a newfound creative confidence as she takes full control of her career for the first time.

The follow-up to 2013's debut Water in a Whale and 2017's Dave Cobb-produced All I Ever See In You Is Me, It's a Beautiful Day and I Love You marks a turning point for Jillette Johnson. Produced by Joe Pisapia, the new album injects her ruminative, piano-written songs with upbeat pop melodies and a shot of guitar-driven, alt-rock muscle. Thematically, she tackles every aspect of the human experience with an open-heartedness and imaginative ingenuity, from her tongue-in-cheek new single "What Would Jesus Do" to the reflective appreciation in "Annie" to the lilting, self-destructive lament of "I Shouldn't Go Anywhere."

"The lessons I learned from those early industry experiences are why I've held so tightly to making this album on my own with people I trust," Johnson explains. "It would have been easy to lean into the melancholy. It was an act of rebellion to not indulge in the pain, to look beyond it and not wallow."

It's a Beautiful Day and I Love You has already garnered positive coverage from press including American Songwriter and Rolling Stone, who called the debut single "a spaced-out trip that recalls Harry Nilsson or Elton John at his most decadent." The Nashville Scene recently premiered Johnson's "Stay Home Version" of "I Shouldn't Go Anywhere," and Grammy.com published her "Quarantine Diaries" entry, where she took fans through a day in her life during the pandemic.

Listen to the new single here:

Photo Credit: Betsy Phillips

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