North London alt-indie duo Blue Violet share new single ‘Sweet Success’. The album ‘Faux Animaux’ will be released on 24th January 2025 on Me & My Records via High Head Recordings. They will play a sold out album launch show at The Grace, Islington on 25th January, followed by further live dates in February.
Fresh from a 20-date UK support tour with Echobelly, Blue Violet share the indie earworm track ‘Sweet Success’, about the never-ending search for achievement in a commercial, cutthroat world. “What that means in this day and age,” the duo say, “is the price we pay for striving for those dizzying heights. The “sess, sess, sess” sample at the start was programmed to sound robotic to give the feel that we’re all mindlessly following the same goal without stopping to question why we want it so badly, and the assumption that once we achieve it, it will make us happy.”
On the forthcoming album ‘Faux Animaux’, Blue Violet continue their exploration of rich electronic avenues inspired by Anna Calvi, St Vincent, Radiohead, Bowie, recent Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Twin Peaks. With their songwriting as sublime as ever, they’ve become one of the most enthralling underground propositions of the age.
The duo have released a flurry of singles this year. They kicked off in March with one off single ‘Human After All’ in the week that they shared the stage with The Gaslight Anthem for various shows at London’s Roundhouse. In April they shared the forthcoming album’s lead single ‘Boogie Shoes’, a grainy glam stomp aimed midway between Queens Of The Stone Age and St Vincent. This was followed by ‘Imagine Me’; amid dark 80s electro-rock tones akin to a more seductive Depeche Mode, the track portraits a lustful temptress – groupie, cougar, stalker or lovelorn loner – frustrated that the sexual encounter she so meticulously plots is over in a flash. ‘Survival’ followed; a gentle paean channelling Metric, Mazzy Star, Cigarettes After Sex and Julee Cruise. October saw the release of ‘Barefoot On The Seine’, a schizophrenic dispatch from the edges of a Parisian riot, its verses lost in graceful Gallic romance and its choruses, grunge rock eruptions all, righteous calls to arms in support of essential personal freedoms. Most recent single ‘Fire’, the duo say, “was to draw attention to one of our most basic instincts: desire.”
Recorded in Bristol’s J&J studios with Bat For Lashes and Hannah Peel mixer / producer TJ Allen, ‘Faux Animaux’ is a unified and sophisticated update of modern British alt-pop, drifting from sizzling space disco to swirling cinematic vistas. It is a stunning amalgam of modernism and melody that spotlights not just humankind’s failings and fakery but its leaders’ too. “The fake animals could be seen as the powers that be, leading us down paths that result in us ignoring our more natural instincts, often making decisions without our permission,” says Sam. Quietly, a beast awakens.
TRACKLISTING
- Sweet Success
- Imagine Me
- Survival
- Talking To You
- The Librarian
- Cold Hearts
- Boogie Shoes
- Fire
- Teeth Out
- Barefoot On The Seine
- Faux Animaux
Pre-order here.
LIVE DATES
25th January – Album Launch Show – The Grace – London
5th February – Sneaky Pete’s – Edinburgh
6th February – King Tut’s – Glasgow
7th February – Beat Generator – Dundee
Tickets available here