Kelly Lee Owens announces new album, ‘LP.8’, and shares two tracks – listen

Kelly Lee Owens has announced details of her third studio album, and shared two new tracks – you can hear them below.

The electronic maverick will release ‘LP.8’ on all major digital platforms on April 29, with a physical release following on June 10 via Smalltown Supersound. Along with the announcement of the record today (March 30), she’s also unveiled two new songs from the release, ‘Sonic 8’ and ‘Olga’.

Both suggest a move away from the dream-pop infused ‘Inner Song’, her last release in 2020, which was delayed by almost four months because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but went on to win last year’s Welsh Music Prize. Instead, ‘Sonic 8’ signals a dramatic turn into abrasive, glitchy territory, whilst ‘Olga’ is another reinvention entirely, representing Owens’ boldest venture yet into ambience.

Enigmatically, she says the title of the album stems from the fact that she feels as if this is, in fact, her eighth album. “For me, 8 meant completion – an album that will ripple infinitely with me personally,” she explained in a press release. Long-time followers of her work will know that the number eight has cropped up before, with the final track of her acclaimed 2017 self-titled debut called ‘8’.

‘LP.8’ came together over the course of a period when she would have been on a world tour in support of ‘Inner Song’, had it not been for the pandemic. Instead, she decamped to Oslo to work with producer Lasse Marhaug, who has worked with such musical outliers as Merzbow and Sunn O))). Together, they envisioned an album that sonically would sit somewhere “in between Throbbing Gristle and Enya”; ‘Sonic 8’ and ‘Olga’ would suggest that they’ve at least been successful in capturing those extremes.

Outwith a previously-announced run of festival dates for this summer, Owens has not yet confirmed touring plans for ‘LP.8’; she closed out an ‘Inner Song’ victory lap of the UK late last year. You can see both the digital/CD and vinyl track listings below; of note is that the running orders differ slightly, and also that the album will contain a song called ’S.O (2)’, in what would appear to be a follow-up to the opening track on ‘Kelly Lee Owens’.

Kelly Lee Owens – ‘LP.8’ [Digital/CD]’:

1. ‘RELEASE’
2. ‘VOICE’
3. ‘ANADLU’
4. ’S.O (2)’
5. ‘OLGA’
6. ‘NANA PIANO’
7. ‘QUICKENING’
8. ‘ONE’
9. ‘SONIC 8’

Kelly Lee Owens – ‘LP.8’ [Vinyl]’:

Side A:

1. ‘RELEASE’
2. ‘VOICE’
3. ‘ANADLU’
4. ’S.O (2)’

Side B

1. ‘OLGA’
2. ‘NANA PIANO’
3. ‘ONE’
4. ‘QUICKENING’
5. ‘SONIC 8’