Ben Watt Returns with New Album 'Storm Damage'

Watch a video for the first single "Sunlight Follows the Night"

BY Calum SlingerlandPublished Sep 24, 2019

Just over three years removed from sharing his Fever Dream, Ben Watt has readied a new solo album.

Titled Storm Damage, the latest from the Everything But the Girl member arrives January 31 through Unmade Road/Caroline. In a press release, Watt said the 10-track effort "came out of an intense period of personal anguish and political anger."

"My closest half-brother died unexpectedly in 2016, only four years after my half-sister," Watt revealed. "I got stuck for a year, angry inside and angry at the political world casually detonating around me. I felt half powerless, half driven. When the songs finally came, some were dark, yes, but there is always room for light. Always. I just tried to put that across."

Musically, the album is said to find Watt using "a future-retro trio" of upright piano, double bass and hybrid acoustic-electronic drums, along with synths and "found sounds" from online public-domain recording archives. Alan Sparhawk of Low also makes a guest appearance, contributing electric guitar and vocal harmony.

"I wanted a timeless-meets-modern live jam — the directness of an unadorned trio capturing the spirit; and the samples, synthetics and electronic boom capturing the psychological mood," Watt explained. "I searched for one-off drones, spoken voices, feedback, urban recordings; not unlike the way I worked in the mid-'90s."

Alongside the announcement, Watt has shared single "Sunlight Follows the Night," which arrives alongside a video directed by Rahim Moledina. Watch that below.

Earlier this year, Everything But the Girl gave their acclaimed Amplified Heart album its first-ever vinyl release.

Storm Damage is now available to pre-order.

Storm Damage:

1. Balanced on a Wire
2. Summer Ghosts
3. Retreat to Find
4. Figures in the Landscape
5. Knife in the Drawer
6. Irene
7. Sunlight Follows the Night
8. Hand
9. You've Changed, I've Changed
10. Festival Song

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