Martin Carr of The Boo Radleys New Record Out Today
By: Caryn Robbins Oct. 27, 2017
Martin Carr has announced today's release of his acclaimed new album. NEW SHAPES OF LIFE is available now via Hamburg, DE's Tapete Records. NEW SHAPES OF LIFE includes the singles "Damocles" and "Future Reflections," both accompanied by new companion videos streaming now at Carr's official YouTube channel. "Damocles" is joined by a kaleidoscopic visual created by Carr in his Cardiff home studio, while "Future Reflections" - directed by multimedia artist Mark James (Super Furry Animals, Gruff Rhys) - received an exclusive world premiere via CLASH, which declared the song "a vital, probing, searching return, one that pushes (Carr) to the outermost limits of his capabilities." National radio play followed, including BBC Radio 6 Music's Gideon Coe, Lauren Laverne, and Stuart Maconie, Radio X's X-Posure with John Kennedy, and other influential broadcasts.
WATCH "DAMOCLES"
WATCH "FUTURE REFLECTIONS"
Formerly songwriter, guitarist, and creative force behind The Boo Radleys and bravecaptain, Carr will perform select dates across the UK in the coming months, beginning with a much-anticipated set at Tapete Records Celebrates 15 Years of Quality Pop, an all-star live anniversary celebration slated for November 18that The Lexington, London. For updates, please see www.tapeterecords.de/info.
Carr's long awaited third solo album, NEW SHAPES OF LIFE was written and recorded last year in the Cardiff-based singer-songwriter's home studio. Its eight songs were formed as if under a spell - by soul music, the death of David Bowie, and what proved to be his own increasing emotional breakdown. Carr completely re-imagined his general approach towards making music, moving away from the guitar towards visionary use of sampling, but significantly, focusing more on meaning than craft.
"I was looking for a sound and a voice to call my own," Carr says. "That was the starting point. The theme was to be myself, to attempt to discover what made me tick, to work out why I behaved the way I did. I wanted to go deeper and find more room in the depths...NEW SHAPES OF LIFE is the first album I've made where I can stand by every word I've written. It's the first one that sounds like me and it won't be the last."
NEW SHAPES OF LIFE has fast earned rapturous critical applause in the UK, with The Quietus praising it as "a hypnotic and deeply affecting listen and probably the finest album he's ever made." "A succinct, deceptively simple half-hour outing," declared UNCUT. "Apprehensive on the gorgeously fluid title track, despairing amid the lovely piano lines of waltz 'A Mess Of Everything,' and confessional on the upbeat 'Three Studies Of The Male Back' - where amusingly he admits to being stoned as a goose - [Carr] makes sweet music of a midlife crisis." MOJO hailed the album's "palpable air of personal disquiet...'Damocles' packs Bond-theme drama, while 'The Main Man' pairs painful personal revelation with an elegant, almost Bacharach-like chorus." NEW SHAPES OF LIFE "seems to have served as a way to recovery for [Carr] since it is a source of very dense, diversified music that covers almost everything he has done so far musically; Bowie, the latter-day Boo Radleys, soul, and all the 'modern' sounds of today," wrote Soundblab. "The lyrical density of the album does not make it such an easy listen at first, but repeated listening of this material reveals rich rewards for all who persist." "Admirers of The Boo Radleys," wrote Q, "will appreciate the sophisticated dance-pop, rock, soul and Brian Wilson-like orchestral curlicues in evidence." CLASH said it best in its 9-out-of-10 rave: NEW SHAPES OF LIFE is "a cohesive, immersive listen that heartily repays repeated listens... the beginning of a new era for Martin Carr, an artist in rare form."
NEW SHAPES OF LIFE follows the release earlier this year of the provocative non-LP single, "Gold Lift," available now via Sonny Boy Records (sonnyboy.bandcamp.com) as well as all DSPs and streaming services. "Gold Lift" - which premiered via The Quietus to mark Brexit Day and the formal triggering of Article 50 - earned international applause, with Brooklyn Vegan hailing the song as a "sprightly, funky tune that recalls the '80s heyday of Paul Weller's decidedly socialist group The Style Council." "Gold Lift" is also accompanied by a Mark James-directed companion video, streaming now at Carr's official YouTube channel.
NEW SHAPES OF LIFE marks Carr's first full-length release since 2014's acclaimed THE BREAKS. "An album of staggering neo-classic rock ambitions," raved MOJO while Q decreed it "a true indie-rock gem." The Guardian declared THE BREAKS to be "dizzyingly euphoric," naming it as the "One Album You Should Hear This Week." "Gloriously direct," and "instantly familiar" wrote CLASH. "Like a particularly fine claret, Carr is definitely getting better with age," applauded The Quietus. "THE BREAKS is a virtuoso display of timeless songwriting, and a showcase of classic English guitar pop, with stirring, occasionally bittersweet, melodies and lyrics that are wonderfully wry and witty and tragic."
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