English songwriter-guitarist Duncan Lloyd presents his new 12-track 'Unwound' album, his sixth solo endeavour, introducing the focus track 'One Step Closer To The Dam'. Previously with Warp Records, this is his first album of new material via Reveal Records following the label's reissues of Lloyd’s early solo albums, including the colossal 31-track selected works collection 'Green Grows Devotion' (2022) and 'Fun City' (a trilogy of EPs recorded in 2024).
Written during a difficult personal period, this record developed as a form of coping and catharsis, fortifying his sound with depth and ambition relative to previous releases. Lloyd earlier shared the singles 'Laugh So Loud' and 'Rituals', blending a modern sound with a deeply personal message about habits and healing, voiced through a circular, radio-like musical journey.
A critically acclaimed solo artist, Lloyd is the primary musician behind internationally renowned art-rockers Maximo Park and also half of Nano Kino (with Sarah Suri). He is a Mercury Music Prize nominee, has won an NME award, had A-listed singles at BBC Radio 1 and BBC 6 Music (including lyric of the year), and has seen success with worldwide platinum and gold selling records. His songs have featured on eight hit albums with Maximo Park, consistently charting in the Top 10 U.K.
'Unwound' album order https://duncanlloyd.bandcamp.com/album/unwound-2025
With cover artwork derived from Lloyd’s own paintings, this record weaves a unique musical maze of free and varied personal expression, deep and transient, spare, intense and urgent with a balance of grit, beauty and melody. Things got moving when Lloyd set to work with Julie McLarnon (The Vaselines, Lankum, King Creosote, Brigid Mae Power) at Analogue Catalogue Studios in Ireland. Gaining impetus from his trip across the Irish sea, Lloyd returned to Newcastle to complete the rest of the album, each song carefully crafted with more anarchical arrangements than previous outings.
“I needed a break from all things online. Stepping away from it and being closer to nature reignites the imagination, it’s kind of obvious but easy to forget how important it is. It’s an album about experience, throughout you get the sense that dynamics, speed and space were all careful considerations. I am sort of looking under the soil trying to shape the sounds I imagine and if possible create something relatable that has a heart. I didn’t want it to be one produced sound, I wanted it to feel like different rooms, many spaces," says Duncan Lloyd.
"I partly had the book "The Poetics of Space" by Gaston Bachelard in mind, every song is it’s own room with it’s own signature. This is probably my heaviest album, in sound and mood. There are songs that lean towards post-punk and with hypnotic rhythms that are darker in tone. I wanted it to feel like the listener can climb inside the sound rather than be on the outside looking in. I don’t want them to be in the cinema I want them to be in the film or in the room, so it’s almost spooky."
The album features a host of Lloyd’s musician friends, including Maximo Park keyboardist Jemma Freese and drummer Tom English, Andrew Mills (Purploid Zing) and Joe Boyer (Cloud Nothings, Autopolitan, Nicole Yun).
'Unwound' is imbued with a darker mood than Lloyd’s previous works, but with a continuing sense of melancholy at its core. Restrained yet intimate lyrics are housed in inventively evolving structures. The album draws to a close with 'A World Away Now', a song of lost opportunity. Sometimes simply making a connection is enough.
"Sometimes on a song the bass or percussion talks louder than a voice, so I mixed it like that. Sometimes nothing else contends if the emotion isn’t clear. When you hear musicians playing together, you are invited into something far more personal or engaging. You can’t always tell the detail, yet you can feel the dynamics -- you can sense it is living," says Duncan Lloyd.
"I may let guitars get loud and careen around if that’s where it wants to go. It can then go the other way and be minimal, economical. Although it is a very personal album, it’s also addressed to the stranger and, if the listener can relate and even laugh about what life throws at us, then a connection lives”.
Writing and recording under his own name for the last decade, Lloyd has enjoyed many collaborations, including with Paul Epworth (Bloc Party, Glass Animals, Rihanna), Gil Norton (The Pixies, Echo & The Bunnymen), Nick Launay (Nick Cave, Yeah Yeah Yeahs), Ben Allen (Gnarls Barclay, Deerhunter), Rudimental, Dave Okumu, Batidaand legendary Afrobeat drummer Tony Allen.
As of July 11th, 'Unwound' is available digitally via Bandcamp and digital music platforms, including Apple Music and Spotify. It is also released on CD, the first 200 ordered coming with a bonus live four-track recording in 'The Polestar Sessions' EP.
CREDITS
Music & lyrics written by Duncan Lloyd (Reveal Publishing)
Duncan Lloyd - vocals, guitars, bass, piano, synth & drum machine
Tom English - drums, percussion (all tracks except 8, 11 & 12)
Andrew Mills - bass & synth (tracks 4 & 5)
Jemma Freese - backing vocals (track 2)
Joe Boyer - guitar & noise (tracks 2 & 7)
Recorded & Mixed by Duncan Lloyd (except 4 & 5) at The Dagda Rooms
Tracks 4 & 5 recorded & mixed by Julie McLarnon at Analogue Catalogue
Guitars on tracks 2 & 7 recorded by Joe Boyer in Cleveland, Ohio
Produced by Duncan Lloyd
Mastered by Carl Saff at Saff Mastering, Chicago
Released by Reveal Records
Digital catalogue no. REVEAL204 / CD catalogue no. Reveal196CD
Cover art & layout by Duncan Lloyd
Publicity by Shameless Promotion PR
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