Today, Gruff Rhys shares a new track, “Silver Lining Lead Balloons” taken from his forthcoming album Sadness Sets Me Free, which will be released by Rough Trade Records on January 26, 2024. Sadness Sets Me Free is the 25th album of Gruff’s career, which has spanned 35 years and includes his work individually, collaboratively, and as a member of various bands. ‘Silver Lining Lead Balloons’ follows the lead single ‘Celestial Candyfloss’ which was released in October.

Gruff says of the new track: “It’s about facing reality and not trying to overstate something that isn’t all that. But it’s deadpan. I’m not being totally serious. At the end I’m singing ‘I left my dreams in a rental car’, which is quite a pathetic image, and then its followed by the last lines, ‘Live for now/ and dream afar’. The version of me that’s singing it is quite a road-worn character – literally. I’d been driving around Europe in a van, with war starting out. So maybe that mindset.”

The song is accompanied by a visual that compliments the wonderment of the music. Expect ‘Silver Lining Lead Balloons’ to be one of the stand-out new tracks that Gruff and his band perform on a series of sold-out dates through 2024 across the UK, Europe and USA.

In a career that has taken him worldwide, Gruff Rhys has always been willing to follow an opportunity, wherever it may lead him. “At this point I quite like working with serendipity,” he says. “Not in a cosmic way, [but] I try and leave things open to chance encounters and chance geography. As I’m around 25 albums in, I’m always looking for ways to make a different-sounding record.”

Sadness Sets Me Free Track Listing

01) Sadness Sets Me Free

02) Bad Friend

03) Celestial Candyfloss

04) Silver Lining Lead Balloons

05) On The Far Side of the Dollar

06) They Sold My Home to Build a skyscraper

07) Peace Signs

08) Cover up the Cover up

09) I Tended My Resignation

10) I’ll Keep Singing