Jake Bugg has revealed details of a new album titled ‘A Modern Day Distraction’. Check out the politically-motivated new single below.
Announced today (May 17), the new project will mark the sixth studio album from the indie icon, and arrives fresh off the back of Bugg completing a tour with Britpop legends Liam Gallagher and John Squire.
It is set to arrive on September 20 via RCA, and will be the singer, songwriter and guitarist’s first full-length LP since he shared ‘Saturday Night Sunday Morning’ back in 2021.
To celebrate the announcement, Bugg has today shared a new teaser of the album – dropping the intense new single ‘Zombieland’.
The track comes as a gritty, guitar-driven anthem, and sees Bugg pay homage to rock icons like Nirvana in his sound, while the lyrics highlight the struggle of those feeling broken by the inescapable daily grind. “She’s waking up still half-asleep, outside the street lights flicker/ He likes to smoke before he leaves another day without a dream/ He works his fingers to the bone just to feed the metre,” he sings in the bone-crunching intro, before erupting into the anthemic chorus. “Around and round it goes again/ Every day just looks the same.”
Discussing the motivation behind ‘Zombieland’, the singer said: “It’s fucking brutal. [People live in] a constant cycle of working to live. They’re not paid what they’re worth.
“People have the same routine every day, they’re at work more than they see their kids, then the government puts the retirement age up. It’s not right.” Check out the single below.
As for the whole album, ‘A Modern Day Distraction’ was produced by Metrophonic at Metrophonic Studios in London, and is set to see the Clifton-born singer return to his gritty indie rock roots.
Following the themes of the new single, the album is born out of the frustration that comes from seeing societal inequality, and looks to shed light on the injustice he’s seen dealt to the family and friends he grew up with throughout the years.
“People might say ‘What do you know?’ or ‘Just stick to music’. I’ve got a bit of money, but we all know the people this affects,” he said in a new press release. “I was just writing it because it was the way I felt. It pisses me off – especially in a country like ours where we have the means and funds to take care of the people suffering the most, but we choose not to.”
“You just have to put your songs out into the universe and hope for the best,” he added.
As well as the new single and upcoming album, today also sees the ‘Lightning Bolt’ singer share details of an upcoming tour of the UK and Europe, set to kick off at the end of 2024.
Kicking off with an opening slot at the Trabendo venue in Paris on November 9, the first leg of the tour will see Bugg play five shows across Europe, including dates in Cologne, Perlin, Amsterdam and Brussels.
From there, he’ll return to the UK for the latter half of the tour and play five remaining dates in cities around the country. These include a night at the O2 Academy in Leeds on November 18, before heading to London for a slot at The Roundhouse the night afterwards.
Remaining dates include a slot at the Barrowland Ballroom in Glasgow, as well as a gig in Manchester and a stop at National Stadium in Dublin, Ireland.
Tickets go on sale next Friday (May 24) at 10am. Visit here to buy tickets and find a full list of new tour dates below.
Jake Bugg’s new tour dates are:
NOVEMBER
9 – Trabendo, Paris, FR
10 –Luxor, Cologne, DE
12 – Lido, Berlin, DE
13 –Melkweg OZ, Amsterdam, NL
14 – Botanique, Brussels, BE
18 – O2 Academy Leeds, UK
19 – The Roundhouse, London, UK
21 – National Stadium, Dublin, IE
13 – Barrowland Ballroom, Glasgow
26 – O2 Victoria Warehouse, Manchester
The upcoming headline shows follow on from various UK and Ireland dates Bugg has lined up across the summer, as well as a forthcoming slot at the Liam Gallagher & Friends festival in Malta on September 22. Visit here for all remaining tickets.
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