The High Llamas are due to make their long-awaited return to music with forthcoming album Hey Panda, set to arrive on March 29 via Drag City.
The 12-track project will mark the UK-based pop group's first full-length release in nearly eight years following 2016's Here Come the Rattling Trees.
Firmly in the back half of his illustrious career, frontman Sean O'Hagan thinks that Hey Panda might be something of a farewell for the band.
I'm 64. Have made 40 records. Scored 8 films. And arranged for many. I love the pop aesthetic, especially the fresh and the naive. When I heard J Dilla in the early 2000s, I thought that was the great renewal of contemporary pop production. I did not have the language or skill set to go there. I was also afraid of being judged. So I avoided, or only hinted at this sound. I'm mainly an invisible contributor to music in my day job. I probably have one artistic record left at 64. So this record had to address what I have come to love. Dilla reshaped the world. We live in the finest non judgemental musical times where the legacies of soul, jazz and lo fi indie have produced a hybrid of generous and stunning creativity. I want Hey Panda to be of this generation.
To celebrate the announcement, O'Hagan and co. have shared the titular lead single and an accompanying music video, which you can check out below, along with the complete Hey Panda tracklist.
Hey Panda:
1. Hey Panda
2. Fall Off the Mountain
3. Bade Amey
4. Sisters Friends
5. How the Best Was Won
6. The Grade
7. Yoga Goat
8. Stone Cold Slow
9. Toriafan
10. Hungriest Man
11. The Water Moves
12. La Masse
The 12-track project will mark the UK-based pop group's first full-length release in nearly eight years following 2016's Here Come the Rattling Trees.
Firmly in the back half of his illustrious career, frontman Sean O'Hagan thinks that Hey Panda might be something of a farewell for the band.
I'm 64. Have made 40 records. Scored 8 films. And arranged for many. I love the pop aesthetic, especially the fresh and the naive. When I heard J Dilla in the early 2000s, I thought that was the great renewal of contemporary pop production. I did not have the language or skill set to go there. I was also afraid of being judged. So I avoided, or only hinted at this sound. I'm mainly an invisible contributor to music in my day job. I probably have one artistic record left at 64. So this record had to address what I have come to love. Dilla reshaped the world. We live in the finest non judgemental musical times where the legacies of soul, jazz and lo fi indie have produced a hybrid of generous and stunning creativity. I want Hey Panda to be of this generation.
To celebrate the announcement, O'Hagan and co. have shared the titular lead single and an accompanying music video, which you can check out below, along with the complete Hey Panda tracklist.
Hey Panda:
1. Hey Panda
2. Fall Off the Mountain
3. Bade Amey
4. Sisters Friends
5. How the Best Was Won
6. The Grade
7. Yoga Goat
8. Stone Cold Slow
9. Toriafan
10. Hungriest Man
11. The Water Moves
12. La Masse