Mystery Jets have shared a deeply personal new single, “Soul River,” as they continue previewing their upcoming seventh album, A Hole To See The Sky Through. For publishers, songwriters and rights holders, the key detail is simple: the band is building a clearly defined album campaign around songs tied to strong themes, specific memory, and a distinctive visual identity.
A song tied to memory, community and loss
“Soul River” is written in memory of a close family friend and cherished figure on the band’s hometown of Eel Pie Island, whom Mystery Jets describe as a “guardian spirit” of the community. The lyrics pay tribute to a life lost to suicide, and Blaine Harrison and the band said, “The song is a celebration of a life cut short but one which lives on in our memory and our music.”
The new track is being presented as one of the most tender and emotive songs from the album so far.
The album rollout is already taking shape
A Hole To See The Sky Through is due out on August 21 via Fiction Records. The record takes its title from Yoko Ono’s minimalist masterpiece of the same name and uses the original work, a simple white postcard with a circle cut out, as its cover after special permission from Ono herself.
So far, the album has also been previewed by “Black Sage” and the title track. The band recorded the project with producer Leo Abrahams at his East London HQ, and the album was written in the years after their 2020 record, A Billion Heartbeats.
What the band says the album will explore
Mystery Jets say the new album will explore heavy themes including freedom and forgiveness, trauma and wisdom. A new press release says the record completes a trilogy that began with 2016’s Curve Of The Earth and continued with A Billion Heartbeats, with this latest chapter casting its gaze “back up from the void, to the cosmic again.”
The release also says the album contains nine songs that form fragments of a thematic whole.
Tour dates and what to watch next
Mystery Jets have also announced a new UK and Ireland tour. Dates begin at SWG2 Studio Warehouse in Glasgow on November 22 and include a date at London’s O2 Forum Kentish Town.
What to watch next is the album release on August 21, along with any further songs the band chooses to share from A Hole To See The Sky Through.
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