News: Bright Light Bright Light Reveals Details Of New Album
3 min read
(UK) Electronic pop connoisseur Bright Light Bright Light announces his highly anticipated new album ‘Life Is Easy’ released on July 7th via Self Raising Records.
Having kicked off 2014 with praise from The Pet Shop Boys for his “sparkling” cover of ‘West End Girls’ (with Scissor Sister Ana Matronic) the Welsh-born musician follows his debut ‘Make Me Believe In Hope’ with a new album focusing on how you learn to appreciate what you’ve got and make the most of your days, inspired by a six month sojourn in NYC.
“The record is based around the idea of missing the bigger picture,” explains Rod Thomas aka Bright Light Bright Light, “How it’s easy to forget to look around you and see what you have. The songs are about family, friends and lovers and what it is about them you love, hate, miss, remember and keep with you.”
He has once again created a spectacular sound, teasing melody filled songwriting into bold electronic textures destined to claim the dancefloor yet tug at ones emotions.
‘Life Is Easy’ arrives less than two years after ‘Make Me Believe In Hope’, a debut that singled out Bright Light Bright Light as “one of synth-pop’s most compelling and exciting new talents” (The Sunday Times), featured on multiple end of year lists and impressed Sir Elton John to such an extent, he picked up the phone, waxed lyrical and wound up adding his iconic vocals to recent single ‘I Wish We Were Leaving.’
“Although it wasn’t written as a duet’ says Rod, “I love that Elton’s voice taking lead in the second verse is a reminder that every relationship has two sides and two voices.”
‘In Your Care’ – the first release from the album – “is about building a life and home in a place very far away from your family. The song is a kind of apology for this, that no matter how far away I go, I’m always thinking about them.’ Written and produced with long-term writing partner Jon Shave of The Invisible Men, the fan favourite weaves cinematic orchestration and weighted beats into a sincere tribute to ones nearest and dearest.
‘There are No Miracles’ feels reflective of Rod’s own work ethic – “It’s a song about working hard for what you want and taking opportunities when they come. Making your own luck.”
These are songs destined to fall headfirst into the lasers, synthesisers shaking in anticipation for a summer of festivals, hazy electronics shimmering across clattering drum loops bouncing Bright Light Bright Light’s love-affair for early 90’s rave into a euphoric splash of modern dance music.
The result is an adrenaline-fueled dreamscape. Heartfelt tales drawn to the disco, pop songs lifted to soaring new heights, all led by the voice of a man intent on exclaiming ‘Life Is Easy’ if only you just let yourself see it that way.
“The title is purposefully a point of discussion. Of course life can be very difficult, but it can also be amazing, depending what approach you take. I left London for New York and fell back in love with life, making music, touring and writing. The album for me is an overview of a year and a half of meeting people who changed my life, making decisions that opened and closed, many doors. A life that had seemed pretty muted suddenly felt technicolour again.”
Fittingly for the album, many of these people feature, with vocals from Milly Blue, Sophie Galpin, Bridget Barkan and Xavier Smith, key members of Rod’s live show, James Yuill, a long-standing musical friend, and Del Marquis, who also adds his trademark guitar skills to many of the album’s tracks.
Meanwhile Bright Light Bright Light has been confirmed as support for Elton John’s European tour in June and July and will play his own headlining show at Cargo on July 1st.
