Stats announce second album 'Powys 1999' and share lead single 'Naturalise Me'
Stats have announced their second album ‘Powys 1999’ – listen to its first single ‘Naturalise Me’ below.
The record is due to arrive on November 13 via Memphis Industries, and follows on from the London group’s 2019 debut, ‘Other People’s Lives’.
Lead single ‘Naturalise Me’, released today (September 9), is a shimmering rush of electro-pop goodness, which finds lead singer Ed Seed questioning his roots.
“Growing up I felt like I didn’t fit in or belong where I was born and raised. I’m sure a lot of people feel this way,” he explained.
“When it comes to the countryside we often talk about the natural – and by implication the unnatural – as if we are talking about the real, and by implication the fake. I felt somehow fake in Powys [Wales] as a born incomer, un-local, neither Welsh nor English. But by looking at the landscape I started to realise the construction and extraction behind it, and the myth of its naturalness.”
‘Powys 1999’ was recorded in a residential studio close to where Seed grew up in Powys. Despite there being a “dense narrative to the record that explores personal upbringing”, Seed clarified that “it’s not nostalgic”.
“It’s about the past but also the future,” he said. “Living another way doesn’t seem so possible now for technological and financial reasons – and I was seeking inspiration from the people I knew who tried to do that.”
He added: “It’s got to be fun. It’s got to bang”. Check out the official artwork above.
In a four-star review, NME described ‘Other People’s Lives’ as “both calm and collected, but wildly unhinged at its core, which bubbles away with insecurities and mysteries.”
