According to pitchfork.com artist Bonnie “Prince” Billy has announced his first solo album since 2019. Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You will be released on August 11 by Drag City.

Also Billy has made the music video for the LP’s lead single, “Bananas,” without actually hearing the song. “It is not intended to interpret the music, but to interpret prompts requested of Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy,” according to a note at the visual’s end.

Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You follows 2019’s I Made a Place and the two collaborative albums Billy released in 2021: Superwolves (with Matt Sweeney) and Blind Date Party (with Bill Callahan.)

Billy made his new album in Louisville, Kentucky, with recording engineer Nick Roeder, violinist Sara Louise Callaway, keyboardist Kendall Carter, violist and violinist Elisabeth Fuchsia, mandolinist Dave Howard, saxophonist Drew Miller and vocalist Dane Waters.

Asa whole, ““Bananas” is a lovely ditty which features Billy and his background singers filling the air with bittersweet sound while the elegant guitar playing serenades the ears with beautiful notes. The images on the music video expresses what Billy is feeling because each character represents the love the artist is longing for.

Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You Tracklist

1 Like It or Not
2 Behold! Be Held!
3 Bananas
4 Blood of the Wine
5 Sing Them Down Together
6 Kentucky Is Water
7 Willow, Pine and Oak
8 Trees of Hell
9 Rise and Rule (She Was Born in Honolulu)
10 Queens of Sorrow
11 Crazy Blue Bells
12 Good Morning, Popocatépetl