The Wombats have announced full details of their fourth studio album, Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life, due for release this February 9th 2018 via Warner Music Australia, and brand new single, Lemon To A Knife Fight, which premiered on triple j this week.
The album is available to pre order now here. Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life sees The Wombats continuing to assert themselves as one of the biggest and best guitar pop sensations of our time. 2015’s Glitterbug LP saw a UK Top 5 Album, along with an ARIA #2 record in Australia, and has currently received over 200 million digital streams. Their June 2017’s headline performance at Brixton Academy to celebrate the tenth anniversary of their UK platinum-selling and ARIA Gold debut album A Guide To Love, Loss & Desperation sold-out in under 24 hours, not to mention two sold-out nights at the Sydney Opera House.
Having premiered as Annie Mac’s ‘Hottest Record’ on BBC Radio 1, Lemon To A Knife Fight rides a push-pull rollercoaster of euphoria and desperation, delivered with the band’s signature animation and wit. Speaking of the track, frontman Matthew ‘Murph’ Murphy adds: “Lemon to a Knife Fight came around after my wife and I had a huge argument on Mulholland Drive. I’d been watching tons of David Lynch too, the song just kind of fell out of me.” Stream Lemon To A Knife Fight here. Written from three corners of the globe – drummer Dan Haggis in London, bassist Tord Øverland Knudsen nursing his new family in Oslo and frontman Murph in Los Angeles – Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life was created over long distance writing sessions, supplemented by intense twoweek in-person sessions in Oslo. With the addition of producers Mark Crew (Bastille, Rag’n’Bone Man) and Catherine Marks (Wolf Alice), the album finds The Wombats pushing the boundaries of alt-pop innovation with a lush, ultramodern indie soundscape wrapped in Blade Runner synths, future grooves, celestial solos and space age melodies.
“I wanted to make an album that had more swagger, was a bit more laid back, something that wasn’t punching you in the face every time you listen to it,” Murph explains. “On every level, musically and interpersonally, we’re much closer.” Debuting in the Top 5 on the UK Album Chart and Billboard 100 and #2 on the ARIA chart, 2015’s ARIA Gold album Glitterbug saw lead single Greek Tragedy receive over 70 million combined Spotify streams, surpassing even the band’s euphoric hit singles Let’s Dance To Joy Division, Moving To New York and Kill The Director that established them as chart-quashing champions of the noughties guitar pop explosion. Where Glitterbug’s exploration of the mythology of Los Angeles and Murph’s budding long-distance relationship, Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life finds the singer newly married and relocated to LA. “The last album was about me meeting someone and my life going upside down in Los Angeles, partying too hard and getting myself in trouble,” Murph explains. “This album is about me battling against that, trying to live an adult life. And failing.”
Rocketing between psychedelic euphoria and dark disfunction, Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life captures The Wombats’ unique pairing of irrepressible hooks and tragi-comic lyricism with a newfound maturity and moving emotional depth. Together, the Liverpool-formed trio have created a record that’s still instantly sing-along but demands to be taken seriously.
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