Skunk Anansie release new album after nine years – Voice Online
LEGENDS: Skunk Anansie Pic credit: (Rob O’connor)
THIS WEEK British rock icons Skunk Anansie drop their hugely anticipated new studio album, ‘The Painful Truth’.
The new album, their seventh studio collection and first in nine years, will be released on May 23.
To celebrate the band will be playing a very special headline show on the day of release, just outside Bristol.
The Painful Truth is a mesmerising, provocative, powerful and emotional album demonstrating a band at the absolute peak of their powers, yet with everything to prove.
“I don’t care that we were big in the Nineties,” states vocalist Skin.
“Creatively it’s irrelevant because in my rock bible the first commandment states, “If thy rest on them laurels, thy shall wither up and die artistically, musically, mentally. And then financially.’”
For Skin the past counts for nothing. Even when you’ve been a band for 30 years and history seems on your side.
The Painful Truth is the sound of Skunk Anansie facing up to who they are and what they want to become. It is more than an album title.
It is a reality that they have lived through.
A combination of parenthood, illness, and the departure of their longstanding manager seemed to conspire against them and add to their uncertainty, forcing singer Skin, guitarist Ace, bass player Cass and drummer Mark to question their place in the world as a band, as well as their own personal ambitions.
For a while, they came close to calling it a day.
Unsure of what to do, and failing to write on zoom, the four-piece retreated post-Covid to a farmhouse in Devon where amid frank conversations and home-cooked dinners, they slowly began collating their feelings into songs.
“When we write it’s just the four of us in a room with no outside distractions or interference, getting to know each other again.
“We’d done the Greatest Hits tour and we realised that things needed to change.
“If we didn’t do something fresh and forward thinking, we couldn’t really be a band anymore. We’d just be doing Skunk karaoke,” says Skin bluntly.
The Painful Truth is a radical record made for these uncertain times.
Their first release on the newly formed FLG Records, and with new management in place, it also comes with a freshness that belies their storied career and previous multi-platinum achievements.
It’s a record that could see Skunk Anansie reclaim their place as one of the most exciting, visionary and important bands in British music.
“When I really think about it, yes, we have made some good records in our time but it’s been a long time since we have made a great album. And that is the painful truth,” confesses Skin.
“Understanding that, led us to making what I genuinely think is our greatest record yet.”
Fans can make their own minds up by catching the group on May 23, at Good Times at The Ridings, Chipping Sodbury (tickets HERE)
Throughout their career, Skunk Anansie have sold over five million records around the world. The band’s international prominence continues to thrive today, selling out live arenas and headlining festivals across the continent.
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“Hands off Ibrahim Traoré!”
THIS WEEK British rock icons Skunk Anansie drop their hugely anticipated new studio album, ‘The Painful Truth’.
The new album, their seventh studio collection and first in nine years, will be released on May 23.
To celebrate the band will be playing a very special headline show on the day of release, just outside Bristol.
The Painful Truth is a mesmerising, provocative, powerful and emotional album demonstrating a band at the absolute peak of their powers, yet with everything to prove.
“I don’t care that we were big in the Nineties,” states vocalist Skin.
“Creatively it’s irrelevant because in my rock bible the first commandment states, “If thy rest on them laurels, thy shall wither up and die artistically, musically, mentally. And then financially.’”
For Skin the past counts for nothing. Even when you’ve been a band for 30 years and history seems on your side.
The Painful Truth is the sound of Skunk Anansie facing up to who they are and what they want to become. It is more than an album title.
It is a reality that they have lived through.
A combination of parenthood, illness, and the departure of their longstanding manager seemed to conspire against them and add to their uncertainty, forcing singer Skin, guitarist Ace, bass player Cass and drummer Mark to question their place in the world as a band, as well as their own personal ambitions.
For a while, they came close to calling it a day.
Unsure of what to do, and failing to write on zoom, the four-piece retreated post-Covid to a farmhouse in Devon where amid frank conversations and home-cooked dinners, they slowly began collating their feelings into songs.
“When we write it’s just the four of us in a room with no outside distractions or interference, getting to know each other again.
“We’d done the Greatest Hits tour and we realised that things needed to change.
“If we didn’t do something fresh and forward thinking, we couldn’t really be a band anymore. We’d just be doing Skunk karaoke,”