London-based project Sunglasses For Jaws have announced a new album: it’s called Everybody’s Made Of Bones and is coming out on June 3 via Pony Recordings (run by Tempesst). The new album was produced in up-state New York at Sean Ono Lennon’s studio with his partner Charlotte Kemp Muhl. Sunglasses For Jaws have historically operated as a duo, but for Everybody’s Made Of Bones they have recruited Olivier Huband, who sings –but does so as an entirely fictional entity named Frank.
The band explain: “Frank is a deluded paranoid schizophrenic, essentially… He believes that he’s in a film, but he’s not, just like everyone thinks that they’re in a film in their own head. Really though, it’s a man having a nervous breakdown. It’s an exploration of method acting and having an existential crisis in this role you’re playing. It’s a bit meta and in the rabbit hole!”
Sunglasses For Jaws have shared the opening track from the album, “Walk Me Home”, saying: “The concept behind the song is that of temptation. Of making a decision that could have disastrous consequences. But, just as Eve plucked the Apple from the Tree, we want to take our own risks and taste our own apples. And those risks seem even more exciting when they’re forbidden.”
On “Walk Me Home”, the band enshroud us in a dramatically-lit world with surging synths and booming percussion that is reminiscent of classic Goldfrapp. ‘Frank’ struts through these billowing mists of sound, coming across as equal parts assured and on the verge of a breakdown, at first promising “something’s gonna happen, it’s your time,” but then seeming to have some kind of existential attack in the chorus as he wails “this is is criminal!” while shimmering tones swirl all around his anguish. Growing bolder as “Walk Me Home” continues, demanding “let me dream / let me live my life,” you can’t take your ears off the strutting and compelling character at the centre of Sunglasses For Jaws’ sonic world, and it leaves us excited to hear what he’ll get up to on the rest of the album.
“Walk Me Home” is also released with an excellent video by Sam T Watson, which is cinematic in its own way – that being an extremely lo-fi, DIY way. Watch that below or listen to the song on streaming platforms.
Sunglasses For Jaws’ new album Everybody’s Made Of Bones comes out on June 3 via Pony Recordings. You can find the band on Facebook and Instagram.