Swedish synthpop and italo disco duo Sally Shapiro have announced their fifth studio album, Ready to Live a Lie, due out May 30 via Italians Do It Better. Alongside the announcement, the duo have released the album’s first single and music video, “The Other Days.” Blending shimmering synthwave, nostalgic italo disco and hints of bossa nova and indie pop, Ready to Live a Lie marks the group’s second release with Italians Do It Better. The record was mixed by label founder Johnny Jewel, known for his work with Chromatics and Glass Candy.
“The Other Days” is a dreamy, melancholic track that continues the group’s signature sound—wistful melodies layered over lush synths and airy vocals. The accompanying video, now streaming on YouTube, mirrors the track’s bittersweet tone with cinematic visuals.
Formed by producer Johan Agebjörn and an anonymous vocalist known only as Sally Shapiro, the duo first broke through with their 2007 debut Disco Romance. Since then, they’ve cultivated a cult following for their nostalgic, emotionally rich sound, with each album offering a new chapter in the fictional world of “Sally”—a character through whom themes of love, longing and heartbreak unfold.
But Ready to Live a Lie signals a shift. While past albums captured the innocence of new love, the new record delves into more complex emotional territory. “This may be our darkest album yet,” Agebjörn said. “We live in the era of lies… On social media, we paint pictures of perfect lives, only to be fed falsehoods in return.”
Sally added, “Perhaps, at times, we need these deceptions to get by. Maybe loneliness is somehow inescapable and we simply do our best to navigate life.”
The album includes a cover of the Pet Shop Boys’ classic “Rent,” and explores themes of disillusionment, emotional distance and quiet desperation—making Ready to Live a Lie a haunting yet beautifully produced chapter in the duo’s long-running story.
Tracklist:
- The Other Days
- Hard To Love
- Rent
- Purple Colored Sky
- Happier Somewhere Else
- Guarding Shell
- Hospital
- Did You Call Tonight
- Oh Carrie
- He’s Not You
- Rain
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