Sondre Lerche will release his new album, Please, on September 23rd via his own Mona Records imprint. In anticipation, the LP’s streaming in full at NPR.org.
The 10-track effort serves as Lerche’s seventh to date and follows his 2011 self-titled album. Written shortly after he and his wife, Mona, filed for divorce, the album sees the Norwegian singer-songwriter trading in his lighthearted pop-rock of the past for more moodier, complex arrangements inspired by heartache and loss.
“For the first time in his career, Lerche is presented unraveled,” a press release notes. “The moans and wails are unedited, and the cutting room floor is clean. Lerche has always written about love, but never in such a primal, sexual way. His well-proven melodic instincts are sharper than ever, but he’s moved from the brain to the body, from the soulful to the physical.”
In an interview with Refinery29, Lerche discussed how recording Please, his so-called “darkest album,” helped him deal with his divorce:
It sounds almost like a cliché, but that became socially and musically such an important part of my dealing with everything. I’ve always loved being in the studio, but all of a sudden, I had this craving to be there, where you’re always moving and looking at things from different angles, and always laughing and always having fun. And, it’s easier to think that when something like this happens that you go into some self-indulgent place of despair, but I found that once I had sort of taken things in, I found that I got all this energy and creativity. I dunno, I’m a pretty rational guy. So, if I just get a moment to take in reality, then I look for new opportunities, new takes on life. And, I think that’s why the album, while it’s definitely the darkest album I’ve done, it’s also sort of the most energetically light.”
Pre-orders for the album are ongoing. Below, watch the video for “Bad Law”.
Please Tracklist:
01. Bad Law
02. Crickets
03. Legends
04. At Times We Live Alone
05. Sentimentalist
06. Lucifer
07. After The Exorcism
08. At A Loss For Words
09. Lucky Guy
10. Logging off
