THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The 12-track Idols, recorded in Leeds, is U.K. singer-songwriter Yungblud’s fourth and most ambitious work. The decision to produce the album just a few miles from where he grew up was made to minimise distractions during the process. “I wanted to make a project that didn’t focus on singles or anything else except feeling and world-building,” he says. “A project with no limitations.”
On Idols, Yungblud explores the theme of hero-worship; how we look to others for validation, often putting others’ lives on a pedestal at the expense of the richness of our own experiences. “We turn to others for an identity before turning to ourselves,” Yungblud says. “Self-belief, self-reclamation, self-evolution and change.
“As we grow up, we lose our belief in magic and mystery. We begin to rationalise everything; our cage walls build up. We compare ourselves to 15 different people before we’ve even had our breakfast.” Idols, he adds, is “a love letter to self-reclamation… to rock music… to life; in all it’s f*cking madness.”
The artist was joined in the process by producer Matt Schwartz, Bob Bradley on additional production, and guitarist Adam Warrington. Idols makes up the first part of a double album, with the release date of part two yet to be announced.”
News of the album follows the release of the bold single Lovesick Lullaby alongside a stylish video by Charlie Sarsfield. To celebrate, Yungblud spent the evening behind the bar at the iconic Hawley Arms in London, serving drinks to a packed crowd. Lovesick Lullaby followed the nine-minute epic Hello Heaven, Hello.
Zombie, another track from the album, “was written initially about my grandmother going through serious injury and trauma,” Yungblud says. “It’s about the feeling of deterioration and ugliness — shutting the world and the people we love out, out of the fear of becoming a burden or an embarrassment.”
