THE FRATELLIS NEW ALBUM ‘HALF DRUNK UNDER A FULL MOON’ OUT NOW
If you thought you knew The Fratellis, think again. ‘Half Drunk Under A Full Moon’, the Glasgow band’s sixth album, is a kaleidoscopic delight full of surprises, from its flamboyant title track and lush songs steeped in brass and strings to twists on the stomping sing-alongs with which the trio first found fame. Following the UK Top 5 success of 2018’s critically-lauded ‘In Your Own Sweet Time’, which contained the Radio 2 playlisted single “Starcrossed Losers”, The Fratellis began work on its audacious follow-up in buoyant form.
The Fratellis new single ‘Need A Little Love’ is currently on BBC Radio 2’s Playlist, and the band’s forthcoming sixth album ‘Half Drunk Under A Full Moon’ – out tomorrow Friday April 2nd on Cooking Vinyl – will be Radio 2’s Album Of The Week next week. The Glasgow trio have been confirmed to perform on The Late Late Show with James Corden, broadcast in the UK on April 6 on Sky Comedy.
Check out ‘Need a Little Love below:
The Fratellis have announced a September UK tour, taking in smaller regional venues – dates below – ahead of the band’s previously announced major UK tour, rescheduled to Spring 2022. All profits from the September tour will go to independent record stores and The Fratellis’ road crew. Tickets for the tour will be available exclusively through independent record stores to April 8th or until sold out
“We’re playing eight small venues around the country and are selling tickets through local record stores,” comments Jon Fratelli, the bands singer and songwriter. “It’s partly to just go out and play, it’s partly an exercise to go out and help local record stores. Any profit will go to those stores, and to our fantastic road crew. Some of our crew have been with us for 15 years, we’re trying to do something to help both sides. This feels like the perfect arrangement.”
On the new album Jon commented “On the last record we broadened our sound by trying out new ideas, all of which I think worked,” says Jon Fratelli, the band’s lead singer and sole songwriter. “With this album, the plan was to push those ideas even further.
Recorded in LA with producer and long-time collaborator Tony Hoffer (Beck, Phoenix, Supergrass), ‘Half Drunk Under A Full Moon’ boasts several firsts for a band that released their landmark debut, ‘Costello Music’, back in 2006. After splitting in 2009 the band reformed in 2012 and have steadily regained their live following thanks to a new generation of Fratellis fans, not just in Britain but abroad, including China, where they have recently found themselves selling out shows.
It is the first Fratellis album where backing singers were brought in to bolster the huge choruses, and where the same characters from the last record return to stalk a lot of the lyrics. The most significant change though is in the style of the album, the result of a new approach to writing where the desired sound was decided upon first, which in turn dictated the songs. “This time I started with threads from In Your Own Sweet Time, from the song Starcrossed Losers in particular, and spun out from there,” says Jon. “Immediately, I heard melodies and knew where I was heading.”
Balancing the album’s more theatrical moments are songs of sheer pop joy, still The Fratellis’ calling card. “Six Days In June” swings on brass, kick-drum and Jon’s fabulous falsetto backing vocals, while its witty lyrics – “You told me if I kissed you/It’d be easier in the long run” – sound like a party starting. Already you can hear them being howled back in festival fields. The quarrelling characters on the track are the couple from “Starcrossed Losers”, who crop up all over the new album. “The theme is essentially a continuation of their storyline – lovers who keep missing each other, never quite getting the show on the road, so to speak,” comments Jon.
