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Shura announces new album I Got Too Sad For My Friends and shares first single ‘Recognise’

Today, British singer-songwriter and producer Shura announces her long-awaited return with new album I Got Too Sad For My Friends, released on May 30 via Play It Again Sam, and shares the first single ‘Recognise’. It marks her first taste of music since 2019’s critically acclaimed album forevher.

‘Recognise’ is the linchpin between this album and Shura’s previous work, which contains the lesson learned over the last six years of uncertainty. It opens with a celestial whirl of synths and soft, almost will-o-the-wisp vocals, before bursting into an unexpected bloom of frenetic drums. Lyrically it plays with artistic identity and the selfishness of dreams (“All this time I’ve been dreaming / Is it selfish? I’m not sure”), before settling on the fact that life is unpredictable, and simply being alive is enough.

Shura says of ‘Recognise’: “Arthur Russell sang ‘being sad is not a crime’ and yet somehow when I went through a period of despair in January I felt that the best course of action was to hide myself away from the world. I think Recognise is a song about coming out the other side of that feeling. Slowly coming to the understanding that everything is ok. And that ok – is good. That I can sit quietly, read a book, sip a coffee and deeply appreciate being here and everything that has happened and has yet to happen…”

Though it’s an album rooted in themes of depression and loneliness, I Got Too Sad For My Friends is far from downcast, it’s an album that stays fully present in its feelings and plunges its fingers into the earth – even when it can be painful to do so. Produced by Luke Smith (Foals, Shygirl, Depeche Mode) and featuring collaborations with Cassandra Jenkins (in a full circle moment, more on this in the coming months…), Becca Mancari and Helado Negro, it retains Shura’s usual crystalline sound and precision while introducing a different kind of warmth and earthiness.

The artwork for I Got Too Sad For My Friends depicts Shura sitting alone on a mountainside, dressed in a baggy jumper, ripped jeans, Converse, and various pieces of armour that fail to cover her vital organs. Part Kurt Cobain, part Leonardo DiCaprio in Romeo + Juliet. The image captures everything about the album, which documents a rocky period of sadness and isolation in pastoral terms. Its warm blend of chamber pop, sixties folk and campfire Americana builds the singer’s acutely introspective songwriting out into a vast landscape.

I Got Too Sad For My Friends:

  1. Tokyo
  2. Leonard Street
  3. Recognise
  4. World’s Worst Girlfriend
  5. Richardson ft. Cassandra Jenkins
  6. America
  7. Online
  8. I Wanna Be Loved By You
  9. Ringpull
  10. If You Don’t Believe In Love ft. Helado Negro
  11. Bad Kid ft. Becca Mancari
Photo credit: Sophie Williams

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