Gwenno announces new album ‘Utopia’ with nostalgic single ‘Dancing On Volcanoes’
UK live dates have been shared for later this year, including a gig at London’s EartH The post Gwenno announces new album ‘Utopia’ with nostalgic single ‘Dancing On Volcanoes’ appeared first on NME.
Gwenno has shared details of a new album called ‘Utopia’. Check out the hypnotic lead single ‘Dancing On Volcanes’ and the newly shared live shows below.
The record is set to mark the fourth studio album from Gwenno and will be the follow-up to the critically acclaimed ‘Tresor’, which arrived in 2022 and earned a Mercury Prize nomination. It is set for release on July 11 via Heavenly Recordings and is available to pre-order here.
According to the singer-songwriter, the album feels almost like a debut, as she uses the 10 songs on the tracklist to reflect on her journey so far, exploring a disaffected schoolgirl in Cardiff, a teenage dancer in Las Vegas, singer in indie pop group The Pipettes and much more. Through exploring these memories, the album became centred on themes of self-determination and experimentation.
Today (April 7), Gwenno has shared the first preview of the LP with the lead single ‘Dancing On Volcanoes’. Over a swirling, nostalgia-driven backing track, the singer captures a sombre tone as she looks back on dancefloors that no longer exist. She both captures the sense of catharsis that came from being on the late-night dancefloor, as well as mourns an era that has passed.
“Jarvis Cocker dancing alone on stage, surrounded by dry ice, perfectly conveying the loss of our congregational dancing and drinking in small venues with a slight swing of the hip and flick of a hand,” she explained. “Dancing ’til 5am at Le Mandela restaurant in Grangetown, Cardiff… the Pet Shop Boys‘ perfectly aimed observations on modern life… the spirit of Johnny Marr on guitar, his echoes of the Celtic sea passed down through the generations… the need to dance as a cathartic act… it’s all here – Dancing on Volcanoes!” Check it out below.
As for the album as a whole, ‘Utopia’ is Gwenno’s first album recorded predominantly in English, and is expected to present a new side to both her life and songwriting.
“I feel as if I’ve written a debut record, because it’s a different language and it’s a different part of my life. It’s about that point where I go out into the world on my own, which people generally write about first, and then get on with their lives,” she said. “But it’s taken me so long to digest it — I needed 20 years just to make sense of things, and I realised the starting point of my creative life isn’t Wales, it’s actually North America.”
“Everything’s a diary entry for me. And in writing about all of this I’ve remembered the chaos of myself,” Gwenno continued. “You get to this point and you go ‘God, that quarter of a century went fast.’ But I want to acknowledge it, and respect it and say, for better or worse, all of that happened.”
Later this year, the singer will play a handful of live shows across the UK, including a slot in London later this month, as well as a slot with Alanis Morissette in Cardiff and an appearance at Green Man Festival.
Visit here for tickets, and find a list of shows below.
Gwenno’s 2025 live shows are:
APRIL
26 – London, The Social
MAY
04 – Salford, Sounds From The Other City
JUNE
19 – Cornwall, The Lost Gardens
JULY
02– Cardiff, Blackweir Park (with Alanis Morisette)
AUGUST
16 – Crickhowell, Green Man Festival
OCTOBER
31 – London, EartH
NOVEMBER
11 – Cardiff, New Theatre
In other Gwenno news, earlier this year the singer-songwriter acted as ambassadors for the 2025 edition of Independent Venue Week alongside rEDOLENT. It took place between January 27 to February 2, and included hundreds of live shows across the UK.
The post Gwenno announces new album ‘Utopia’ with nostalgic single ‘Dancing On Volcanoes’ appeared first on NME.
