Sinead O'Brien announces debut album, shares new single Multitudes

SOB
(Image credit: Chloe le Drezen)

Sinead O'Brien, the Irish post-punk poet, has shared a new single, Multitudes, as a teaser for her forthcoming debut album Time Bend And Break The Bower.

Due on June 10 via Chess Club, the 11-track album was produced by Dan Carey (Wet Leg, Squid, Black Midi).
 
“The story of the album is built up in layers; one song giving context to the next," says O'Brien. “I thought about becoming undressed; testing my ideas, my voice. Working myself out across themes of identity, curiosity, creative process. Experimenting with the form and shape of language, using tone and delivery to get to the immediate centre of what I am saying. The record opens and closes with poems, these tracks have a really clear direction - a form which is set apart from the ‘songs’. I hold stops in different places, moving emphatically through the lyrics, changing the meaning. No punctuation - only the voice mapping out the way.”

Listen to Multitudes below:

O'Brien has also announced a series of English in-store performances in June to promote the album. She will play:

Jun 10: Banquet, Kingston
Jun 14: Rough Trade, Nottingham
Jun 15: Rough Trade, Bristol
Jun 16: Rough Trade East, London
Jun 17: Resident, Brighton

In addition, O'Brien has a full UK/Ireland tour lined up for October, when she will call at:

Oct 09: Cluny 2, Newcastle, UK
Oct 10: King Tuts Wah Wah Hut, Glasgow, UK
Oct 11: Brudenell Social Club, Leeds, UK
Oct 12: Deaf Institute, Manchester, UK
Oct 14: Bodega, Nottingham, UK
Oct 15: Future Days, The Crossing, Birmingham, UK
Oct 17: Lafayette, London, UK
Oct 19: Green Door Store, Brighton, UK
Oct 20: Ramsgate Music Hall, Ramsgate, UK
Oct 26: Cyprus Avenue, Cork, IRE
Oct 27: Whelans, Dublin, IRE
Oct 28: Black Box, Belfast, UK
Oct 29: Dolans Warehouse, Limerick, IRE

The track list for Time Bend And Break The Bower is:

1. Pain Is The Fashion Of The Spirit
2. Salt
3. Girlkind
4. End Of Days
5. Like Culture
6. The Rarest Kind
7. Holy Country
8. Spare For My Size, Me
9. There Are Good Times Coming
10. Multitudes
11. Go Again

SOB album

(Image credit: Chess Club)
Paul Brannigan
Contributing Editor, Louder

A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne's private jet, played Angus Young's Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.