I Love The New Sky
As the 2020 lockdown commenced in Britain, Tim Burgess found an effective way to entertain a nation in isolation. Every night, Twitter gathered at #TimsTwitterListeningParty to play appointed albums while the artists and collaborators shared anecdotes from making those records. Apart from generating calls for the Charlatans frontman to be knighted for services to keeping spirits up, the virtual gatherings spotlighted his bottomless enthusiasm and curiosity for music. Also emerging during the COVID-19 outbreak, his fifth solo album is another vivid reflection of that personality: exuberant, adventurous pop that, even in its darkest corners, is warm-souled and melodic. Largely written by Burgess in pre-lockdown solitude in Norfolk, the album freewheels through chamber pop, drone rock, piano balladry, and psych, finding lyrical inspiration everywhere from America’s West Coast (“Lucky Creatures”) to an escalator in a London drugstore (“The Mall”). On the self-searching “Timothy,” it’s that faith in words and melody that shines through again: “When the music starts it fills my heart/Oh, those songs/Make us strong.” *I Love the New Sky* is just one more exhibit in the case for Burgess being crowned a national treasure.
The permeating feeling on the fifth solo album from the Charlatans frontman is one of community and optimism.
The Charlatans frontman's fifth solo record is an autobiographical beaut that skips along to gorgeous melodies even as it charts heartbreak
It seems timely that the man responsible for selflessly shining a light on other people’s standout albums throughout lockdown should have the spotlight directed back at him this week.
Tim Burgess offers a wonderfully positive outlook on ‘I Love the New Sky’, while Katie Von Schleicher wrestles with personal trauma
Tim Burgess opens I Love the New Sky, his first full-blown solo album since 2012's Oh No I Love You, with "Empathy for the Devil" -- a song that's not only a punning salute, it's a statement of purpose.
The best-case scenario for a veteran artist is to make music that recaptures what originally made their art great while also moving their cr...
Tim Burgess is one of the hardest working men around. Not content with spearheading The Charlatans, writing three books, and becoming a haphazard coffee
There was a moment when Manchester quartet The 1975 looked like the band of the future… before they went and made the same mistake as so many great bands from the past.
On the Charlatans frontman’s fifth solo album there’s lots going on in every song, but it never feels overcooked
An artful pop treasure from the ever-busy Charlatans frontman. Review by Kieron Tyler