Lanterns On The Lake have announced new album, 'Versions Of Us', which is released on 2nd June 2023 via Bella Union and available to preorder here. The self-produced fifth studio album, on which Radiohead's Philip Selway joined the band to provide drums and percussion, follows 2020’s Mercury-nominated 'Spook the Herd'. To accompany the announcement Lanterns On The Lake have also revealed tour dates for the autumn.
The nine songs of Versions Of Us are existential meditations examining life’s possibilities; facing the hand we’ve been dealt and the question of whether we can change our individual and collective destinies. Singer and songwriter Hazel Wilde has no doubt that motherhood fundamentally shifted her perspective. “Writing songs requires a certain level of self-indulgence, and songwriters can be prone to dwelling on themselves,” she says. “Motherhood made me aware of having a different stake in the world. I’ve got to believe that there’s a better way and an alternative future to the one we’ve been hurtling towards. I’ve also got to believe that I could be better as a person, too.”
Listen to the first song released from the record, 'The Likes Of Us' HERE
Given some of its themes, a biting irony is found in an entire previous version of the record being discarded. Mental health struggles and personal problems in the band had a big impact on how the initial version took shape. “Despite trying everything we could to make it work we reached the point where we just had to stop” Hazel explains. Drummer Ol Ketteringham parted ways with the band, something Hazel says was “heartbreakingly difficult as we were and still are extremely close”. The band scrapped nearly a year’s worth of work, regressing to song demos with just Wilde performing with a single instrument as they began again with Radiohead’s Philip Selway joining the album sessions on drums. “Philip brought an energy to the songs that reignited our belief in them,” said Hazel.
Highly anticipated tour dates are HERE
