RELEASED JULY 22ND 2022
Jamie T will release his new album ‘The Theory Of Whatever’ on July 22nd via Polydor Records. The singer-songwriters hotly awaited fifth full-length album follows a triumphant headline performance at Glastonbury and comes as his seminal debut album ‘Panic Prevention’ marks its 15 year anniversary and achieves platinum status.
Jamie T had some 180 songs written in the five-and-half-years since the release of 2016’s Trick. “I was struggling to find my direction with the record for a few years, really,” he admits. Bunkered in his East London home studio, he wrote and rewrote, playing all the guitar and keyboard parts himself. From there, he drilled down and focused on 13 vital, pin-sharp, melody-rich, spikily provocative, visually vivid and narratively expansive tunes that make up ‘The Theory of Whatever’.
These are songs about British hell, the psychogeography of wee hours London, vandalising luxury cars of the mind, the migrant crisis, Brexit, celebrity drug dealers – but never, crucially, too on-the-nose and always, brilliantly, wildly imaginative in their lyrical truth-telling.
On album opener ‘90s Cars’, Jamie T raps, scats and sings over an interpolation of This Mortal Coil’s version of Big Star’s Kanga Roo. Then there’s ‘The Old Style Raiders’, an indie-rock anthem with a heads-thrown-back chorus and the first single to be released from the new album.
‘British Hell’ suggests The Clash’s punk-skank turned up to 12 and features another inspired, leftfield sample: of 1981’s London Dungeon by US punk band Misfits. The taut hip hop groove of ‘Keying Lamborghinis’ leads into the drum-free London blues of ‘St George Wharf Tower’, the album’s second single.
‘A Million & One New Ways to Die’ is a clattering post-punk rush of bruised romance, built for a heady singalong when Jamie T tours later this year. It was a stand-out at Treays’ recent club show at iconic west London venue Subterrania, his first live show in over five years.
Jamie T enlisted the help of various friends in the making of ‘The Theory Of Whatever’. The breakneck ‘Between The Rocks’ was co-written with album producer Hugo White while ‘Old Republican’ benefitted from the input of Foals’ Yannis Philippakis. Elsewhere on the album, Tom Dinsdale and Frank Carter lend their talents.
‘The Theory of Whatever’ will be released on a variety of Vinyl, CD, Cassette & Digital formats.
Jamie T will celebrate the release of ‘The Theory Of Whatever’ with two intimate shows at Banquet Records on July 28th. Both shows sold out in less than 5 seconds.
Jamie T recently announced details of a major UK tour. The 9-date nationwide tour runs throughout November and includes a performance at London’s historic Alexandra Palace on November 18th.
The dates are:
10th November Newcastle O2 City Hall
11th November Birmingham O2 Academy
12th November Leeds O2 Academy
14th November Glasgow O2 Academy
15th November Sheffield O2 Academy
17th November Manchester O2 Victoria Warehouse
18th November London Alexandra Palace
21st November Cardiff University Great Hall
22nd November Portsmouth Guildhall