THE CLIENTELE ANNOUNCE UK TOUR & OFFICIAL PODCAST

PLAY ROUGH TRADE EAST THIS EVENING

NEW ALBUM "I AM NOT THERE ANYMORE" OUT NOW ON MERGE

WATCH LYRIC VIDEO FOR "LADY GREY" HERE

Selected praise for "I Am Not There Anymore":

“After decades building up to it, The Clientele have produced what is probably their finest, most enjoyable record.”
- The Quietus

“The Clientele deserve to be up there with the greats - and the band's new album could be their best yet.” - CLASH

"A both radical and reliable triumph from Britain's most underrated."
***** - Record Collector

"These songs offer an uncommonly generous wealth of grace and beauty."
9/10 - Uncut

"A stunning return hinting at pastures new."
9/10 - Album Of The Week - Far Out

"An astonishing record that is certain to reveal unexpected details on its twentieth, fiftieth and hundredth listen, gradually compiling its picture, offering a reverie in which to be fully immersed."
9/10 - Silent Radio

"(An) ambitious double LP... they have expanded their sound, MacLean working with bassist James Hornsey and drummer Mark Keen to incorporate more abstract rhythms, complex orchestrations and unresolved melodies."
**** - Mojo

"A brave and ambitious step into the unknown."
**** - Shindig!

Today, the cherished London trio The Clientele release their acclaimed new LP, "I Am Not There Anymore", sharing a lyric video for album highlight "Lady Grey" and playing a hometown in-store at Rough Trade East (buy tickets) in celebration.

WATCH LYRIC VIDEO FOR "LADY GREY" HERE

The band have also launched an official podcast, put together by fan of the band and comedian Robin Allender who co-hosts The Moon Under Water with John Robins and Your Own Personal Beatles with Jack Pelling.

Featuring interviews with members past and present, you can listen here:

https://podfollow.com/1698656005

The band have also announced a clutch of rare live dates for later this year and the start of next, including a show at London's Lafayette:

Sun 1 Oct - PARIS Petit Bain
Fri 13 October - LIVERPOOL DISTRICT w Prof Yaffle
Sun 15 October - LEEDS BRUDENELL
Fri 3 Nov - GLASGOW Stereo
Fri 19 Jan - LONDON Lafayette

With "I Am Not There Anymore", The Clientele - vocalist/lyricist/guitarist Alasdair MacLean, bassist James Hornsey and drummer Mark Keen - incorporated elements of post-bop jazz, contemporary classical and electronic music to their work.

According to MacLean, “None of those things had been able to find their way into our sound other than in the most passing way, in the faintest imprint.” The result in songs like “Claire’s Not Real”, which shifts fluidly from a light bossa nova beat to The Clientele’s classic chamber pop. “And sometimes I’m walking home, at my door, I am not there anymore,” MacLean sings atop lush instrumentation, “I am not there anymore, do you know what I mean?”

MacLean notes that he’s not the kind of songwriter who ever sits down with a theme in mind; it’s more that “the music will bring images and then those images link of their own accord.” On “Claire’s Not Real,” MacLean evokes the all-too familiar eerie beauty of a sky lit orange by forest fires. “I was in Cercedilla in Spain in summer 2020,” he says of the track. “There was suddenly a rain of ash and an orange glow on the horizon, and I read on my phone that nearby Ávila was burning with forest fires. This moment found its way into several songs on the album.”

LISTEN TO "CLAIRE'S NOT REAL" HERE

Over the 32-year career of the pop band The Clientele, critics and fans have often described their songs with words like “ethereal,” “shimmering,” “hazy,” “pretty” and “fragile.” MacLean, though, has his own interpretation of the effect his music creates. “It’s that feeling of not being there,” he says. “What’s really been in all the Clientele records is a sense of not actually inhabiting the moment that your body is in.”

"I Am Not There Anymore" regularly evokes what MacLean calls “the feeling of not being real.” A lot of the lyrics were inspired by MacLean’s memories of the early summer in 1997, when his mother died. Though the album functions as MacLean’s way of mourning, he notes that he’s not the kind of songwriter who ever sits down with a theme in mind. It’s more that “the music will bring images and then those images link of their own accord.” It’s a general mood he’s chasing with these loosely connected recollections. (For more of MacLean’s impressionistic words, spend some time with his book Exhaust Fumes, Magnolias & Light: Selected Lyrics 1997-2021, published by Edge of the Lane Press.)

The result is a 19-track journey that extends from light bossa nova beats to the Clientele’s classic chamber pop, with Keen’s live drums weaving around programmed drum and bass samples to create something polyrhythmic and avant-garde. Keen is also responsible for the spare and lovely instrumental interstitials that appear throughout the LP — all called “Radials,” as in “the spokes from the center of the wheel.” They “change the focus in between songs,” according to MacLean. “Without those tracks, everything might be a bit too heavy. They make you look away for a little while so you can look back again later.” There’s a similar purpose to the cover image, taken from the 1823 Kameda Bōsai painting Long Life. It’s both a beautiful piece of abstract art and a poem about, in MacLean’s words, “the distance and surprise of getting older.”

As MacLean says, "I Am Not There Anymore" is all about “the memory of childhood but at the same time the impossibility of truly remembering childhood… or even knowing who or what you are.”

BUY "I AM NOT THERE ANYMORE" HERE

The Clientele share lyric video for "Lady Grey", announce UK dates & official podcast + Play Rough Trade East this evening. Critically-acclaimed new album "I Am Not There Anymore" out now on Merge

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