Glasgow/London duo Sacred Paws return to the fold after a five year hiatus, announcing their new album Jump Into Life for release on March 28 via Rock Action Records (Merge in North America). Along with the album news they have shared a first single entitled ‘Turn Me Down’.
When the band broke through with their debut record they did so with firm intent and rousing success. The duo of Ray Aggs (Trash Kit, Shopping) and Eilidh Rodgers (Golden Grrrls) took their roots in the punk world and wound it together with myriad influences, from Afrobeat, through pop and post-punk, to create a glorious and unique hybrid.
Formed of eleven new songs, Jump Into Life takes the roots of the Sacred Paws project and breathes fresh life into it, blossoming into something both abundant and more colourful than has come before; a gentle skewing of their signature sound that feels wildly thrilling.
Late last year first single ‘Another Day’ introduced the thematic thread, of remaining positive in the face of heartbreak, that weaves throughout the record and it breeds affection the more explicitly it reveals itself – both in sound and sentiment.
It’s a theme that continues on today’s new single ‘Turn Me Down’ – a track the band say is “about the rawness of rejection” where the refrain “do you even feel the pain?” juxtaposes against jubilant handclaps and guitars that burst with vitality. They add: “It’s something I reckon everyone feels at some point in their life – those moments when however irrational it might seem to feel so deeply the feeling is still there. It felt cathartic to write a song about it with quite dramatic rhythms and a big vocal melody.”
Sonically, The track ripples with the unyielding spirit of their more recognisable African and roots influences, the vocal harmonies again lending the track a world-weary edge that allows the whole thing to linger long after the song is wrapped up. “We really loved working on the vocal melodies for this song,” they say. “The harmonies took a while to figure out as it’s not something we have done a lot in the past but the singing added something really epic. The lyrics are so simple and raw that it really needed to pack a punch as a song.”
Jump Into Life:
- Save Something
- Another Day
- Fall For You
- Simple Feeling
- Through The Dark
- Turn Me Down
- Jump Into Life
- Slowly Slowly
- Ask Myself
- Winter
- Draw A Line
