Circa Waves Announce Second Part Of 'Death & Love' with 'Cherry Bomb' Video
(PIAS) Circa Waves have unveiled the second chapter of their brand new album Death & Love - out October 24 via Lower Third / [PIAS] - with both parts making the whole 18-track album available to pre-order on CD and double gatefold vinyl.
The band return with the bubbling, laid-back Strokes slacker indie of lead singer "Cherry Bomb", complete with freeform verses before a sweet chorus "all about that person who would do anything for you," Jump into a fight for you, take you for a beer when you're down, the person who keeps you level and someone who is generally a bit of a badass. We all need a cherry bomb in our life."
Released in January 2025, Death & Love Pt.1 was all about starting from scratch and starting over after his lowest point with his brush with mortality. In early 2023, Kieran received a call from doctors to say that the main artery in his heart was severely blocked. Two days later, he was lying on an operating table watching a wire being inserted into his heart to fix it. What followed was the cancelling of a lot of shows, working out a lot of medication, and most crucially, now having to navigate a new way of life.
However, one record wasn't enough to house all that would come flooding from such a profound experience. "I'd written so much stuff after all the heart incident stuff - there was a release of creativity," Shuddall admits. "There were more songs than I'd ever written before, in one furious writing period."
The two albums were produced by Shuddall and recorded between a friend's studio in Finsbury Park and the iconic RAK studios in London, where Green Day and Muse happened to be working at the time ("I saw Billie Joe Armstrong in the toilet!" Kieran excitedly proclaims). The sister records come together to boast the sound of bouncing back from potential tragedy.
Now, after 'part one' tried to make sense of what he'd been through, "this album feels like the more optimistic part of the two records," says Shuddall. "It almost feels like if the first record was before the operation and death and fear of dying, then one is coming through the other side. It's about love, life, survival and euphoria".
The album kicks off with "Lost In The Fire" - a banger that picks up where 'part one' left off and gets straight to the point: that life is for living. From the sweet 'Stick Around' to the kaleidoscopic pop of "Love Me For The Weekend', the subtle dreamy subtleties of 'Sunbeams' and the Beatles-meets-Empire Of The Sun psych waltz of closer "Wave Goodbye", Death & Love Pt.2 completes that arc of dancing away from the bad times and into the good. The purpose of Circa Waves after all is to be a tonic, an escape and a distraction, and the frontman is ready to move on.
Circa Waves was formed in Liverpool in May 2013. The band first gained a buzz and earned favorable comparisons to the Strokes, Arctic Monkeys, and the Vaccines before they hit the Top Ten with their debut, 2015's Young Chasers. Buoyed by singles like "T-Shirt Weather" and "Stuck in My Teeth", the album reached the Top Ten of the U.K. albums chart and paved the way for a series of well-attended live shows, including a sold-out date at London's O2. In 2020, they reached number four on the U.K. albums chart with Sad Happy and returned in 2023 with Never Going Under.
Life is for living - and living well - and Circa Waves are here to soundtrack that. There's no time for pretense; but enough long nights to get lost in, another dance to be danced, and parties to be had with the people that matter the most. There's always more love to be made.
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