20 albums and 25 years into her recording career, Thea Gilmore has finally decided to release a self-titled album which lands on UK shores on October 6th 2023. The album was entirely written, played and produced by Gilmore. “That’s why this is my first self-titled album,” she explains. “On my last album I changed my name to Afterlight and drew a line under everything I’d done up to that point. Not to invalidate it, but to put an end to the ‘before’. It was a very inward-looking record that was rooted in the darkness of everything that happened to me up to 2019, whereas this album has its head up and is eyeing the world as a challenge. It’s a logical forward motion – the emergence from the shadows of Afterlight into the relative lightness of Thea Gilmore – in a renewal of my vows to music; my first love. In a weird way it feels like a debut of sorts so it made sense to make it eponymous.”
Across 12 tracks Thea “delves into the cracks between the paving slabs of life’s big themes” (we have not come across that analogy before but we like it); songs include ‘She Speak In Colours’, written as part of BBC Radio 2’s critically lauded 21st Century Folk project; while ‘The Next Time You Win’ with its simple piano figures and its collage of spoken and sung lines seems to both accept the way the world works while reaffirming the pledge to stand on the frontline of change. Thea Gilmore will be available on all digital platforms as well as CD and Vinyl. Exclusive bundles are also available on the official store here.
Gilmore will be touring the album, playing London’s Union Chapel on 12th October and then an 11-date tour around the UK in early 2024. Fans who pre-order the Thea Gilmore album on the official store will get access to a ticket pre-sale that will run for 48 hours from Wednesday 5th July. General on sale will open on Friday 7th July. Tickets can be purchased from here.
Thea Gilmore has worked with and won the admiration of cultural icons such as Bruce Springsteen, Martha Wainwright, John Cooper Clarke, Billy Bragg, Steve Earle and Beth Orton. Neil Gaiman (writer/showrunner of Netflix #1 show, The Sandman) is also a long-standing fan, describing her last album Afterlight (2021) as an “emotional rollercoaster in a musical wrapper… a postmortem with better lyrics, executed by someone who can sing her heart out even as she slices into yours.”
Thea Gilmore 2024 UK Tour Dates (and one in 2023):
12th October 2023 – Union Chapel, London
31st January 2024 — St. George’s, Bristol
1st February 2024 — SJE Arts, Oxford
2nd February 2024 — Huntingdon Hall, Worcester
3rd February 2024 — Ropetackle Arts Centre, Shoreham
4th February 2024 — The Haymarket, Basingstoke
5th February 2024 — The Apex, Bury St. Edmunds
6th February 2024 — The Glee Club, Birmingham
7th February 2024 — Stoller Hall, Manchester
8th February 2024 — The Stables, Milton Keynes
9th February 2024 — Howard Assembly Room, Leeds
10th February 2024 — Sage 2, Gateshead
