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In this second edition, black ink on the cover print has been replaced by green ink

"I have worked together with sheep before" - says Henning Christiansen - introducing the performance he did in front of the Brucknerhaus in Linz in July 1988. But this time he went beyond, building a "Concert-Castle" with hay blocks where thirty sheep could perform music. Another time the animals - Christiansen’s obsession and passion - become the musical instruments used for his compositions: "Originally most of instrumental sounds derived from animal voices or other sounds of natural phenomena. The violins, for instance: someone found out that stretched intestines, dried bowels, could produce a sound. This has simply been civilized, refined".
Schafe statt Geigen (Sheep Instead of Violins, 1988) and “Verena” Vogelzymphon (Bird Symphony, 1990) first appeared as a small CD edition issued by Galerie Bernd Klüser in 1991. Both works, each one occupying a full side of this LP edition, extend from one of Christiansen’s long standing conceptual strategies - deploying recordings of animals as stand-ins for musical instruments, sheep and birds respectively. While each work allows these source to take the natural lead, at times masquerading as field recordings, both feature subtle tonal and electronic interventions by the composer, creating strange and brilliant compositions which shift the terms and subjects of music as they were long understood. Accompanied by a twenty page booklet featuring drawings and texts by Henning Christiansen, as well as pictures of the performance by René Block.
"The background, the space where music happens is what I want to put into the foreground."

Formed in recent years in San Francisco (though it may seem more likely that they hatched fresh out of a time travel portal from the mid-’80s Bay Area thrash scene), Hell Fire have the classic look and sound of modern metal’s halcyon days. Their sonic assault warmly condenses elements of Angel Witch, Iron Maiden, Rainbow, Exodus, Metallica, Riot, Virtue and Diamond Head into eight tracks of headbanging MUYA anthems.

The free-wheelin’ creativity and infectious vitality of Bay Area thrash is a moment forever locked in time, but its spirit lives on in this band’s galloping guitar picks, soaring harmonies and blistering rhythms. The band’s perfect hybrid of NWOBHM theatrics and American thrash attitude delivers a rousing and genuine expansion on sounds long lost to pointless battles over who can be the most “extreme.”

Hell Fire began when bass player Herman Bandala moved to San Francisco from Tijuana, Mexico, with the hopes of forming a heavy metal band. Herman posted an ad to Craigslist which caught the attention of guitarist Tony Campos. They bonded over a mutual love of ’80s thrash and NWOBHM. Just before they entered the studio to record their debut album Metal Masses, Jake Nunn joined on vocals. The lineup continued to develop over time, finally solidifying with Nunn also taking up second guitar duties and drummer Mike Smith joining prior to recording Free Again.

This sophomore album is being released for the first time on vinyl and remastered for CD and download. It was recorded over five days in Grass Valley, California, at engineer Tim Green’s Louder Studios (The Fucking Champs, Melvins.) Where Metal Masses showcased aesthetic nods to Metallica’s Kill ‘Em All album (as well as a cover photo brilliantly depicting a blurry hand speedily playing a Flying-V guitar), Free Again finds the band coming into their own with emphasis upon grooves, a beefier sound and tighter songs that expertly shift into new parts at the drop of a hat.

The Tropicália art movement of the late 1960s, with flourishes in visual art, poetry, theatre and music, is one of Brazil’s most adored cultural concoctions. It was a movement which began out of necessity, shortly after a repressive military dictatorship seized power after 20 years of peaceful democracy. The term Tropicália first came from the mind of Brazilian visual artist Hélio Oiticica, whose eponymous piece consisted of a sandy maze bordered by tropical Brazilian flora and, at the end, a television set.

Through satirizing symbols of their homeland and rejecting a pre-established national culture, the Tropicalists constructed a new form of “aggressive nationalism” outside of an innately anti-imperialist Left and an unthinkingly patriotic Right. By refusing to accept underdevelopment as their identity and excitedly “devouring” disparate culture (low and high brow, domestic and foreign, etc.), the Tropicalists carved out a unifying creative space, a universal sound, different from the older, bourgeois bossa nova movement and the newer, undiscerning rock movement.

Caetano Veloso’s self-titled debut solo album is one of the most important and influential Brazilian (and, dare we say, South American) albums of all time. With the release of this seminal album, Veloso would become the leading voice of Tropicália.

The songs on this album immediately connected with people. Alegria, Algeria was his breakout hit that gained traction as a hymn for liberty advocates, juxtaposing images of Coca Cola, guerrilla groups, bombs and Brigitte Bardot as part of the everyday experience. The album’s first song Tropicália was an anthem for the whole movement; it’s a fragmented allegory, a structure borrowed from friends

in the concrete poetry scene, touching on divergent cultural symbols, events, allusions and idioms, nimbly representing and critiquing the many contradictions in the new Brazilian dictatorship.

Superbacana (translated as “Supergroovy”) follows a hyperbolic superhero’s use of technology to fight a gang of cowboys led by the money-hungry Uncle Scrooge, serving as allusions to American imperialism and greed felt in their country, all in the rapid-fire structure of a comic book. The subtext in all these songs, which the dictatorship would not immediately catch, were that these repressed but glaring contradictions, not the bountiful sunny paradise that the military regime was pushing, were the true national identity.

Unfortunately, these cleverly veiled jabs in Veloso and his contemporaries’ bodies of work gained greater and greater exposure as the movement became more and more popular, leading to the arrest, imprisonment and forced exile of Veloso and many of his cohort. Despite these difficulties, the Tropicalists continued creating in exile, strongly influencing artists both at home and abroad.

This is the first authorized North American vinyl issue of Caetano Veloso. Whether you’re a longtime fan or first-time listener, Third Man Records could not be more proud to spread the compelling story of this album, this artist and the Tropicália movement.

Following Guided By Voice’s sprawling double-album Zeppelin Over China, Robert Pollard has written and recorded another full-length in record-breaking time. It’s Warp And Woof, exuberantly barreling through twenty-four songs in just thirty-seven minutes with a brevity similar to mid-90s GBV albums Alien Lanes and Vampire On Titus. GBV kicked this one out in a flash, recorded in studios, club soundchecks, hotel rooms and even in the tour van.

After completing Zeppelin, Pollard felt the itch to record a few EPs. Just as GBV had done back in 1994, he would use them to channel his everflowing ideas to an outlet. But when a magical boombox writing session produced six fully formed songs in under half an hour, Pollard realized he had an album on his hands. What to do?

With a band so formidable they’ve been dubbed the Golden Age of GBV, they completed much of the recording on the road. The 2018 Space Gun Tour provided impromptu recording venues. Pollard recorded vocals in hotel rooms, complimentary condominiums, and small studios. Doug Gillard cut guitar tracks for “End It With Light” through his Mesa Boogie rig at the soundcheck at the Ottobar in Baltimore. Bobby Bare Jr. recorded his spacey main rhythm guitars for album closer, “Time Remains in Central Position” at the same show, but in the backstage green room. Kevin March added drum tracks in a studio in his hometown Montclair, New Jersey. Gillard played guitar on “Bury the Mouse” in a van hurtling at 60-plus m.p.h., and Mark Shue laid bass on “Angelic Weirdness” as he balanced on the speeding van’s bench seat.

Jack Waterson is the acid that Adrian never took as a kid. The result, as you’d expect, is both colorful and dark; full of sonic and musical surprises. The creative relationship they have questions the social order of the United States, yet theirs is a quintessentially American Story: Kindred spirits

Punk rock and hip hop came from the same place, fueled by identical sentiments: people taking the music back, reclaiming it, and finding a new audience. Waterson, primed from the mid-70s Punk scene, began his musical career in ’79 as a founding member of Green on Red. They inspired artists as diverse as My Bloody Valentine, Wilco and Mazzy Star with their records and psychedelic palette. Years later, Waterson continued his influential journey by opening the revered musical instrument store, Future Music, a Los Angeles staple.

In ’99, an 18 year-old Younge realized that he wanted to create music that sounded like the records he was sampling. Unbeknownst to him, he serendipitously wandered into Future Music. It’s there, he realized his dream was possible. Intrigued by the stores focus on pre ’83 equipment, Waterson soon became a mentor in developing Younge’s unique analog sound. They spoke heavily about the importance of vintage equipment and it’s use in creating revolutionary worlds.

During these years, Waterson schooled Younge on psych and art rock; Younge returned the favor by schooling him on Hip Hop, the origins of sampling, and its source music. Together this unlikely duo manifested new revolutionary worlds with Waterson appearing on every Younge album within the last decade.

Adrian Younge presents Jack Waterson is getting lost in the impressionistic and at times jarring world of psychedelia, questioning what is real and challenging to question the role you play in this world. These kindred spirits have created a cinematic psych album with no boundaries. Laced with hip hop breaks and acid rock, their intention is to subvert the designation of what is black vs. white music.

The Guts Philantropiques Tee is equipped with the following features:
• rib crew neck with interior tape
• Philantropiques artwork printed on front
• regular fit
• 100% cotton single jersey

It’s been more than forty years since Kool Herc starting throwing parties in the South Bronx, and so you could forgive the casual fan for thinking that nearly every permutation of hip-hop has already been explored. But KEITH, the new album from the iconic rapper Kool Keith and the master producer Psycho Les (due out July 12 on Mello Music Group) argues just the opposite: that what’s absurdly funny can also be sinister and strange, that the form can still be broken in new and radical ways. Keith is, of course, one of the pivotal figures in the history of hip-hop, and has been one of the genre’s most singular writers and original voices. The Bronx native was a founding member of Ultramagnetic MCs, whose debut album, 1988’s Critical Beatdown, served as a blueprint for both internationally famous acts like Public Enemy and for the entire future of underground rap. But Keith’s solo work, which began in earnest in the mid-’90s with Dr. Octagonecologyst (released under a pseudonym, naturally) is even stranger, more experimental, more brilliant. He will enjamb seemingly unrelated ideas and images against one another with a poet’s love for language and a pornographer’s knack for camp. Subsequent records like 1997’s Sex Style, ‘99’s Black Elvis/Lost In Space, and 2000’s Matthew were hailed as instant classics; Keith has spent the last several years crafting expertly written records that are rewardingly bizarre, unlike anything else on the rap landscape –– and KEITH is a crown jewel in that excellent late-period run.

Psycho Les is a founding member of the Beatnuts, who were first notable as the only Latino members of the Native Tongues, the collective of groups that pushed hip-hop to its avant edges in the early ‘90s. They were staples throughout that decade, both with their own albums and via the production they did for artists as disparate as Fat Joe and Common –– as well as for their work pioneering the remix. The Beatnuts’ music had in its foreground cramped house parties and reckless debauchery; Les developed the unique ability as a producer to merge that abandon with technically rigorous sample manipulation and unique arrangements.

If you’re worried that two artists who have been working at this for so long would be tempted to rest on their laurels or make music that’s predictable, disabuse yourself of that notion. Keith opens the album with a tangent about Foot Locker –– not about buying shoes, but about lusting after the footwear chain’s employees, with their tight, referee-striped shirts and form-fitting black pants. It only gets stranger from there. His Lamborghinis aren’t just green, they’re pistachio green; his head is perfectly round like Charlie Brown’s; his handkerchief is worth your per diem. And as a vocalist, Keith is still as slippery and innovative as ever: see the way he slides right into an unorthodox flow at the beginning of “Slave Owner,” only to thin out his writing to allow for a string of insults from the titular slave owner.

KEITH is a laser-focused, remarkably vital work from two artists entering the fourth decades of their respective careers. If nothing else, take as an example a couple of the guests who appear here: there’s Jeru the Damaja, who represents the true-school ethos of New York in the early ‘90s, but there’s also Paul Wall –– he rides shotgun on “Foot Locker” –– who broke through more than a decade after Jeru, as the woozy, laconic Houston scene of the mid-2000s briefly stole the national spotlight. Both serve as ideal foils for Keith: they’re somehow tethered to Earth as we understand it, while he’s free to orbit around them, and us, in a path that only he will ever understand.

Jack Waterson is the acid that Adrian never took as a kid. The result, as you’d expect, is both colorful and dark; full of sonic and musical surprises. The creative relationship they have questions the social order of the United States, yet theirs is a quintessentially American Story: Kindred spirits.
Punk rock and hip hop came from the same place, fueled by identical sentiments: people taking the music back, reclaiming it, and finding a new audience. Waterson, primed from the mid-70s Punk scene, began his musical career in ’79 as a founding member of Green on Red. They inspired artists as diverse as My Bloody Valentine, Wilco and Mazzy Star with their records and psychedelic palette. Years later, Waterson continued his influential journey by opening the revered musical instrument store, Future Music, a Los Angeles staple.
In ’99, an 18 year-old Younge realized that he wanted to create music that sounded like the records he was sampling. Unbeknownst to him, he serendipitously wandered into Future Music. It’s there, he realized his dream was possible. Intrigued by the stores focus on pre ’83 equipment, Waterson soon became a mentor in developing Younge’s unique analog sound. They spoke heavily about the importance of vintage equipment and it’s use in creating revolutionary worlds.
During these years, Waterson schooled Younge on psych and art rock; Younge returned the favor by schooling him on Hip Hop, the origins of sampling, and its source music. Together this unlikely duo manifested new revolutionary worlds with Waterson appearing on every Younge album within the last decade.

The Jimi Hendrix Let Me Live Tee is equipped with the following features:
• rib crew neck with interior tape
• Let Me Live artwork printed on front
• regular fit
• 100% cotton single jersey

The ARTIST Green/Grey Keyline Logo Tee is equipped with the following features:
• rib crew neck with interior tape
• Ghost Keyline Logo artwork printed on front
• regular fit
• 100% cotton single jersey

She first emerged as an avant-garde violinist who channeled her playing through loop pedals. Then songwriter, vocal performer, and beatmaker. She's captivated audiences at festivals around the world, touring her trail-blazing EPs Sudan Archives (2017) and Sink (2018). Sudan's many identity coalesces in her debut album, Athena: a psychedelic, magnetic take on modern R&B.

"When I was a little girl, I thought I could rule the world," Sudan Archives announces in the sparse, string-plucked opening bars of Athena, on the strident "Did You Know". Her musicality and sense of self-belief developed as a young child in the church. Born Brittney Parks, but called Sudan from a young age, she moved around Cincinnati, Ohio many times as a child; religion and music were the most stable forces in her life. It was in church that Sudan began learning to play the violin by ear, participating in ensemble performances. "I remember begging my mom to get me a violin," she says. "From there I just never let it go – it felt like I had a purpose."

Growing up with a twin sister, Sudan also learned young that she was the "bad twin". Her stepdad – a one-time music industry executive – tried to turn the two into a pop duo when they were teenagers, but Sudan would miss rehearsals and curfew so frequently that the project was abandoned. Still, the experience was valuable: "My stepdad basically planted this whole idea of artistry as a career," she remembers. Though she left the band behind, Sudan clung onto the idea of pursuing music when she moved to Los Angeles at age 19. While studying and holding down two jobs, she would spend her spare time "fucking around with some beats and making some weird shit", which she released tentatively under the name Sudan Moon – a combination of her childhood nickname and her love of Sailor Moon. The ethereal quality of those early lo-fi, G-funk-inspired beats would eventually make its way into Sudan's current sound.

It was once she discovered ethnomusicology, and learned to incorporate the violin into her beats, that she really unlocked a new level. Cameroonian electronic music pioneer Francis Bebey was an early inspiration: "His music is so simple, and the way he combines strings and electronic music is such a vibe.” From there, she educated herself about other artists and ethnomusicologists, learning about the history of one-string fiddling in Ghana, Sudan, and all over the world, which "blew my mind". Now a fervent crate-digger with ambitions of studying ethnomusicology, she changed her artist name to Sudan Archives.

After she met with Stones Throw A&R and Leaving Records founder Matthewdavid, Peanut Butter Wolf signed her to Stones Throw. Her self-titled debut EP introduced the world to Sudan's fusion of North African-style fiddling, layered R&B harmonies, and pared-back production. Her second EP Sink was a resounding six-track statement that, according to Jenn Pelly at Pitchfork, saw Sudan "level up as a songwriter" — especially true of the bold self-love song "Nont For Sale".

Those EPs, Sudan says, were "like a haiku of what the album is". Athena is "more in your face, more confrontational – and that's also how I've grown as an artist. I used to be a hermit who would make beats in her bedroom, but now I'm working with other writers, producers and instrumentalists, I've learned how to communicate. It feels like I'm almost back in church." At first, it was tough for Sudan to cede any control in her creative process, but as she got stuck into the sessions with producers Wilma Archer (Jessie Ware, Nilufer Yanya), Washed Out, Rodaidh McDonald (The xx, Sampha, King Krule), and Paul White (Danny Brown, Charli XCX), she opened up. The resulting album, whittled down to 12 taut tracks from around 60, is her most ambitious work yet.

On the album's cover, she poses as a Greek goddess sculpted in bronze. Simultaneously at her most powerful — channelling the energy of her princess warrior heroes Xena and Sailor Moon — and her most vulnerable, Sudan challenges the viewer to see what's under the surface. "I'm naked!" she says. "I don't have anything to hide at all, it's all out there."

What. It’s almost 2020!? Face it, the last ten years or so have been a BLUR—so much shit going down, good and bad—and a lot of music too. It doesn’t look like its gonna get any easier for anybody to get their bearing, so TY SEGALL and Sea Note have gotten together a special box to help you reorient your head, no matter where you are. Yeah, this one’s for the freak, the fan, the head. Pig Man Lives is a stack of raw germs that were blown up in the world as Ty Segall releases over this last golden decade or so—specifically, the demos that bred Manipulator, Freedom’s Goblin, Emotional Mugger, Twins, Ty Segall, Slaughterhouse and Sleeper. Each finished record had its own unique aim and intention, but when you hear tracks from 2007 next to 2015, then 2012 cutting in after 2017, the splatter allows you to hear the continuum of a whole body of work exploding over and over again in the burst of freedom that comes with the initial sketch of a song. Non-linear reorientation, taking you back and forward over the course of eight sides and 47 songs. There’s even a few that haven’t seen the light of day before. You’re bound to feel different after you’ve spent any kind of quality time with Pig Man. Whether he’s recording alone at home or in a studio with the band, Ty’s goal in putting something on tape isn’t just to log the song, it’s to make a whole thing that’s rad. For some of these songs, further evolution brought even more out of them. And some are perfect this way, with rough edges and little details you’re not gonna believe you’ve lived without. As sure as Pig Man Lives, you won’t have to anymore.

Sonisk Blodbad from Bergen, Norway are ready with their third album "Electric Mirror". The record continues in the same dark soundscape as the precursor "Deux" (2015). Sonic Bloodbath has previously collaborated with legends such as Laurie Amat (The Residents), Don Preston (Frank Zappa / Mothers Of Invention) and Fernando Saunders (Lou Reed / Marianne Faithfull) and the late Conrad Schnitzler(of Tangerine Dream & Cluster fame). Ulf Knudsen (Betong Hysteria / Sister Rain) and Sam Fossbakk (Profedssor Tip Top, Elektrisk Regn) and Shirley Kent from the cult band The Ghost (UK) guests on "Electric Mirror".

Limited to 500 copies on Neon Green.

The Professionals - Beats by Madlib. Raps by Oh No. Real. Rap. Shit. Featuring Adub, Elzhi, Chino XL
Madlib is a highly regarded and influential hip-hop producer and occasional rapper, who has left his distinct and stylized sound on classic tracks and critically beloved albums by the likes of MF DOOM (Madvillain), J Dilla (JayLib), Talib Kweli (Liberation), Georgia Anne Muldrow (Seeds), and more. Madlib's collaborations with rapper Freddie Gibbs (Piñata & this year's Bandana) are some of the most acclaimed hip-hop records of the past decade, and his various DJ mix compilations (Madlib Medicine Show, Beat Konducta) have earned high praise from a vareity of journalistic sources. Oh No is a rapper and producer who has left his mark across a wide swath of releases. His 2006 concept album Exodus Into Unheard Rhythms (Which exclusively sampled the works of musical theatre composer Galt MacDermot) was highly acclaimed upon its release, as well as his various crate-digging DJ mix projects (Dr. No’s Oxperiment, Dr. No’s Ethiopium). He has produced tracks for the likes of Danny Brown, Action Bronson, Aloe Blacc, Talib Kweli, and Prodigy, while contributing guest verses to tracks by Czarface, Apathy, Murs, Little Brother, and more Madlib. Oh No. The Professionals.

Back in 2018, Lumière Noire celebrated its first anniversary with a compilation featuring thirteen exclusive tracks by an eclectic group of electronic musicians – a family portrait of sorts. A few months later, a second volume of From Above, compiled by the label’s artistic director (and DJ) Chloé, once more brings thirteen established acts together with promising upstarts. The first compilation was the embodiment of the label policy advocating for both artistic excellence and a widening of electronic aesthetics – bopping from deviant house music to adventurous IDM and to the rigor of dancefloor techno, among other electronic explorations. Some of the artists featured are now closely associated with Lumière Noire, while others were more established performers such as Benedikt Frey, Lauer, Jonathan Fitoussi, Il Est Vilaine, Dave e Brun (half of Swayzak) and Frank Agrario, as well as upcoming artists such as C O N T R

After a short break since 2007, Proyecto Secreto is back (Bruce Lee not yet). A few smashing performances later, culminating in a comeback at the last Ghent Festivities with Lien De Greef and Paolo Marquez as guests,there is now a new release with skalosal songs that include Dave Hillyard and Vic Ruggiero from The Slackers. The album was mixed by Latin Grammy Award winning engineer en dub master Victor Rice.

Dislocation Songs was recorded over the past 3 years – on and off – in Chris Menist AKA Awkward Corners' home studio. It started as a reaction to the UK post-2016's Brexit vote and an emotional response to the negative direction the country is taking with regards to immigration, politics and social priorities. The record shifts between optimism and resignation. The recording process offered emotional catharsis, and a space to summarise feelings that can be hard to put into words. The record is a collection of textures, rhythms and tones touching on downtempo beats, devotional music and electronic sounds. Music you can even meditate to. Chris is joined for three tracks by Sarathy Korwar, who plays tablas in this setting.

Strictly limited edition of 300 copies on green colored vinyl with printed innersleeves.

This is the very first reissue of Kool G Rap's debut solo album from 1995. Features include artists such as Nas, MF Grimm and B-1 and the production was handled by Buckwild, Dr. Butcher, Naughty Shorts and T-Ray.

Another essential gem from the golden era that should not be missed in any 90's classics collection!

On July 3rd, Beggars Arkive is excited to reissue Between 10th and 11th, the second album by The Charlatans.Available on double clear vinyl and double CD, the reissue contains the original album plus remastered tracks from the often-bootlegged live show from Chicago in 1991, known as Isolation 21.2.91, a holy grail amongst fans.Between 10th and 11th was originally released in 1992 and contained the UK Top 20 hit (and biggest US single) "Weirdo", as well as singles "Tremolo Song" and "I Don't Want To See The Sights". Produced by Flood, you can hear the pure crispness in the audio.Entertainment Weekly said that "Between 10th and 11th consolidates the band's riveting, hypnotic attack, all musical tips o' the hat to the '60s and '70s, smeared over a smorgasbord of unrelenting dance beats and topped with hook ("I Don't Want to See the Sights") after hook ("Weirdo")." "A certifiable classic" - PopMatters

South London’s Lianne La Havas re-entered our musical consciousness at the end of February with her emotionally stirring soul-gem ‘Bittersweet’. This came in conjunction with an Annie Mac Hottest Record, a mind-blowing live show at the Barbican with the BBC Symphony Orchestra & Jules Buckley and an incredible Colors session – all of which helped put Lianne firmly back on the cultural map for 2020.

‘Lianne La Havas’, Lianne’s third album and her first in five years and is an album of startling beauty and insight—made entirely on her own terms which has been quite a journey. In one sense, geographically: La Havas spent a lot of time moving back and forth between the UK and the States working on writing and exploring her own identity. As a result, ‘Lianne La Havas’ feels spacious and luminous. Its sunbaked sounds recall, in places, the Brazilian singer, songwriter, and guitarist Milton Nascimento (on “Seven Times”). You might also hear the curveball chords of Joni Mitchell and Jaco Pastorious’s jazz explorations (“Green Papaya”), or the puttering drums and inviting warmth of golden-era Al Green (“Read My Mind”). And throughout the record, there’s a sense of empowerment that has its roots in the crisp ‘90s R&B of Destiny’s Child.

‘Lianne La Havas is ten songs that span the arc of a love relationship. The album’s opener, ‘Bittersweet’ functions as a kind of an overture, setting out what follows, before the giddy, love-struck rush of ‘Read My Mind’. If these first few songs suggest a flower opening its petals, that’s no coincidence: “What plays a big role in the album is the idea of the life cycle of plants and nature—equating this journey with a seasonal thing that blooms, thrives, goes away, and comes back even stronger,” La Havas says. Over the five years it took for the album to come together, she found herself watching the changing foliage outside her window in south London, struck by how she was growing and changing herself—not always comfortably. “A flower has to dry up and die in order to be reborn,” she says. “You have to get to the rock bottom to rebuild yourself.”

After relentless touring and promoting of her first two albums as well as personal and emotional events in her life, it was becoming increasingly difficult to find time, inspiration and confidence to get back in the studio for a follow up. As it came about, the recording process of album number three began in earnest by accident; returning from a glorious, sunny Glastonbury festival performance in June 2019, La Havas and her core band decided to see if they could nail their lithe live version of Radiohead’s ‘Weird Fishes’ in the studio. “I had the most wonderful, nourishing experience recording that,” she says, “And that’s where I decided: the rest of the album needs to be like this. It’s got to be my band, and I’ve got to do it in London, whenever people have time.” By October, she had all ten songs, and by December, everything was recorded—mainly in London, and also in Bath and New York. In keeping with the album’s intimate feel, everyone who contributed to the record is a trusted collaborator, including long-term songwriting ally Matt Hales, co-producer Beni Giles, and guest co-producer Mura Masa.

The confidence that La Havas has cultivated, both personally and creatively, is audible in the fact that ‘Lianne La Havas’ is a record that feels utterly real—a living, breathing thing. It hasn’t been polished to a squeak in favor of a “clean” recording; La Havas followed her gut on this album, going with what feels good.

Beauty never really goes by the book, and ‘Lianne La Havas’ is a breathtaking example of this. Now thirty years old, she is excited about playing these powerful songs live. “The best part is that I own them, and really believe in them,” she says. “And, you know, it’s me. So I can’t be afraid of doing what I do, and being who I am.”

‘Lianne La Havas’—an exquisite, rich, and tender expression of love, loss, and rebirth that marks a new era for the British artist.