Hear “After All This Time” Today via Stereogum
“In a bookshop I met a beautifully dressed woman of a certain age, who said,‘It’s Michael, isn’t it?’ I said, “Yeah?” It wasn’t a difficult question. A lengthy pause followed, then she said, ‘We were married for four years.’ Not my finest hour. Out of that, came this song.”
– Michael Chapman
Today marks the premiere of the second single from True North via Stereogum. The unflinching, bittersweet “After All This Time” features the voice of UK songwriting hero and longtime Chapman friend and collaborator Bridget St John. Floating on a cloud of BJ Cole’s pedal steel guitar, it’s as weightless and lovely as “It’s Too Late” is brooding and menacing. Stereogum writes that:
“It’s a melancholic lullaby about eroded love, told from the resignation of old age. Fellow British folkie Bridget St. John assists Chapman, her light but throaty tone wonderfully cutting his heavy rusted croon. Over a mesh of twanging guitars played by Chapman as well as Steve Gunn, plus BJ Cole on the pedal steel and atmospheric cello courtesy of Sarah Smout, Chapman and St. John ask if it’s words or silence that ruins love.“
True North, the masterful follow-up to Michael Chapman’s universally celebrated 2017 album 50 is due for release February 08, 2019 on Paradise of Bachelors. The album was announced in late 2018 with the release of the “gripping” (Brooklyn Vegan) album opener “It’s Too Late” described by The Guardian as a “sage, yet defiant assessment of boozy regret.”
Listen to “After All This Time” (featuring Bridget St John) HERE.
[youtube https://youtu.be/RIAGPZ1dCLM]
Pre-order True North
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True North finds the elder statesman of British songwriting and guitar plumbing an even deeper deep and honing an ever keener edge to his iconic writing. This authoritative set of predominantly new, and utterly devastating, songs hews to a more intimate sonic signature—more atmospheric, textural, and minimalist than 50, stately and melancholy in equal measure. Recorded at Mwnci Studios in rural West Wales, True North surveys home and horizon, traveling from the Bahamas to Texas to the Leeds of Chapman’s childhood, haunted by the mirages of memory and intimations of mortality. Joining him on this introspective journey is a cast of old friends and new disciples: the aforementioned Bridget St John sings, and once again Steve Gunn produces and plays guitar, collaborating with cellist Sarah Smout and legendary pedal steel player BJ Cole, who has accompanied everyone from John Cale to Scott Walker, Elton John to Terry Allen, Felt to Björk.
By the time True North is out in the world, Chapman will be seventy-eight years old and will have released nearly as many records, a staggering achievement. The elegiac True North navigates the treacherous territory of time, resulting in the most nakedly personal album of his career, his most authoritative, unguarded, and emotionally devastating statement. The album begins with the gnawing regret of “It’s Too Late,” and every song Chapman sings thereafter directly references the passing of time—its blind ruthlessness, its sweet hazy delights—in noirish language almost mystical in its terseness and precision. This is Chapman at his darkest and most nocturnal, yes, but also his most elegant and subtle, squinting into the black hours with an unseen smile.
Pre-order details
Please note that this album is available in a limited red-wine colored vinyl edition—our second-ever color pressing—in addition to regular black vinyl. Contingent on manufacturing schedules, we will ship your pre-ordered album approximately a week in advance of the February 8, 2019 worldwide release date. All pre-orders include an immediate 320k MP3 download of lead single “It’s Too Late,” as premiered by Billboard.
For digital-only preorders, please visit Bandcamp (which also offers uncompressed, high-resolution audio files) or your favorite digital marketplace.
