London-born, Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter Teddy Thompson returns to the fray with Never Be The Same, due out May 15th via RPF Records/Royal Potato Family. This is his first collection of original material since 2020, and he does it across ten tracks exploring music’s enduring preoccupations: love, longing, and the uneasy passage of time. The first single and accompanying video is So This Is Heartache which you can watch below.
Thompson reflects on the title: “It’s a phrase that, unconsciously, I used twice. And when I saw it on the page, I realized, this is the message of this album. Don’t ever be the same. Change. Grow! Even when the sentiment is, ‘woe is me,’ I’ll never recover after that love or loss. The message is still change. Don’t get too comfortable. Everything is temporary, so evolve or perish!”
This pull and tension between comfort and change runs throughout the album, which was produced by Grammy Award–winning musician/producer David Mansfield, who also helmed the album My Love of Country, Thompson’s 2023 country covers project. Seemingly at its core is Thompson’s longstanding commitment to songwriting as a form, inspired by early influences like Chuck Berry, Hank Williams, and Crowded House, as well as the towering figures of the craft — Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, The Beatles, and, certainly, his parents, British folk icons Richard and Linda Thompson.
“Songwriting is magical. You can hear one hundred people sing ‘I love you,’ and you know which one is telling the truth,” Thompson says. “If the root of the sentiment is authentic, it will resonate. If you sit down to write the most raw emotion you can summon, most of the time it’s going to touch on some kind of loss. People will say, ‘Oh, you poor thing,’ but it’s not that I’ve had more heartbreak than anybody else—I just wrote it down.”
Never Be The Same Track Listing:
1. Come Back
2. I Need Real (Love)
3. I Remember
4. So This Is Heartache
5. Worst Two Weeks Of My Life
6. Baby It’s You
7. Make Up Your Mind
8. The Game
9. Not What I Need
10. Same Old Song
The album will be available May 15 on 180-gram blue and black vinyl variants, a limited-edition 180-gram red vinyl variant exclusively for independent record shops, and CD and digital formats. Available for Pre-Order/Pre-Save
Thompson has also announced 13 shows in the UK and Ireland this June to support the album. Tickets are available here.
Teddy Thompson 2026 Tour Dates:
6/3 – Dublin, IE – Workman’s Club
6/4 – Belfast, UK – Black Box
6/6 – Pocklington, UK – All Saints Church
6/7 – Glasgow, UK – St Luke’s
6/9 – Sunderland, UK – The Fire Station
6/10 – Manchester, UK – Stoller Hall
6/11 – Leeds, UK – Howard Assembly Hall
6/12 – Lincoln, UK – Drill Hall
6/14 – Norwich, UK – Epic Studios
6/16 – Brighton, UK – The Old Market
6/17 – Milton Keynes, UK – The Stables
6/18 – Bristol, UK – St. George’s
