‘Sooner or Later’ is the latest single from AUK-favourites Danny & the Champions of the World. With urgent percussion and compelling instrumental layers, including Paul Lush’s tuneful guitar and Henry Senior’s E-bow lap steel, this is another example of Danny George Wilson’s fine song-craft. Danny says of the song: “‘Sooner or Later’ is definitely our stab at doing a ‘Modern Love’, ’80s Bowie thing. I totally love it. We did a tour in Spain recently and that was our encore, and it went down an absolute storm.”
The single appears on the new album ‘You Are Not a Stranger Here’, due on 18th October on Loose Records. It’s been a while since the last studio album: the brilliant ‘Brilliant Light’ was released back in 2017. However, their seventh studio recording promises absorbing songs and great writing and will be worth the wait. It follows a concept, threaded through the album. Danny explains: “The way the record is laid out is across a day. You hear the weather report in the morning and then you’re immediately into this question of ‘I know what I’m doing, but I don’t know why I’m doing it anymore. As it goes through the day, you get the commute, the hold message from a call centre and finally ending the day back home with ‘Sooner or Later.'”
The songs are personal but explore themes that many will associate with and translate into their own lived experiences. Danny says: “These aren’t huge epiphanies. They’re little things that you’ve suddenly realised about yourself, about life and the weirdest thing is that by singing about not trying to be universal, these are possibly the most universal things I’ve ever written. I think it’s one of those records where you suddenly think, you’re not old but you’re not a kid anymore, and you wake up and go, ‘What’s this all about? The songs don’t profess to know anything. In fact, they’re a lot less self-assured than all of the previous thirty years of songs. I’m looking in the mirror a bit here. As a result, it’s a weird mix of looking at yourself and looking at the world. There’s nostalgia in there, and there’s regret. I’d been reading and talking about lots of things that maybe you don’t do so much when you’re young. Not the big questions, but you find yourself going ‘Sorry, can we just stop and think ‘What’s the point here?’ And I guess the title of the album is reflective of that.” In his personal reflections, in the search for meaning and in a more adventurous sonic palette, Danny George Wilson has created an engaging, heartfelt and well-realised collection of songs.
The band will be celebrating the release with a UK tour next spring – get your tickets here. Enjoy.
