Ed Harcourt has shared his latest single ‘Deathless’, a haunting track from his forthcoming LP ‘El Magnifico’.
‘Deathless’ is the second single to be released from the forthcoming LP, following ‘Strange Beauty‘. “I’ve been dying to live for something / It’s better than dying for nothing / I want to be deathless / want to be deathless” he sings over a haunting and pounding beat.
Directed by Steve Gullick, the song’s accompanying black-and-white video features Harcourt standing still and singing in the middle of the desert under trees and next to cacti and agave plants.
Speaking of the song in a press release, Harcourt said: “Written in a mad fever dream one night, this is a darker and heavier track from the record; basically it’s my attempt to write ‘Who Wants To Live Forever’ but if it was trying to punch it’s way out of a metal box.”
He continued: “Absolutely blessed to have a brilliantly woozy string arrangement from Fiona Brice (John Grant / Placebo). My erstwhile co-navigator, Dave Izumi Lynch, really stepped up to the plate here and delivered a storming final mix; manipulating tape machines, dropping subharmonic sonic A-Bombs and flipping the song on it’s back and tickling it until it screamed for sweet mercy. Listen to it loudly until the neighbours call the cops.”
The UK singer-songwriter will release his 16th album, ‘El Magnifico’ on March 29, 2024 via his own imprint, Deathless Recordings. It’s available to pre-order or pre-save here.
“I think as a songwriter you do get to a point where you’re aware of your past and what you’ve done,” Harcourt said of ‘El Magnifico”s fresh direction. “It’s knowing what your strengths are, what your weaknesses are, but also knowing how to better yourself by doing things you haven’t done before.”
“I find that I’m always learning,” he added. “When I’m writing with someone else it’s always a total blank canvas so you have to be open to trying new things. It means with every record I do myself it’s got to have something different in it. Every album is always a reaction to the last thing I did. After the ‘Furnaces’, which was quite heavy and experimental, I felt it was time I went back to the source a bit. So maybe there is a sense here of drawing on what people perhaps know me for, but there is also a big step forward.”
Harcourt concluded: “One of the important things with the record for me is that it feels like a combination of everything that I’ve done, yet it’s also opened up so many new possibilities.”
The artist’s most recent LP was the soundscape album ‘Monochrome To Colour’ in 2020.
In other news, Harcourt has announced a short run of in-store shows around in celebration of his album’s release. Check out the full dates below and visit here for tickets.
Ed Harcourt 2024 in-store live shows are:
MARCH
29 – Assai – EDINBURGH
APRIL
2 – Jacaranda – LIVERPOOL
3 – Jumbo – LEEDS
4 – Resident – BRIGHTON
5 – Truck – OXFORD
8 – Banquet – KINGSTON UPON THAMES
