audiobooks, the duo of Evangeline Ling and producer/mixer David Wrench, made one of the best, brilliantly bonkers albums of 2018 with their debut, Now! (in a minute). Three years later, they’re finally back with Astro Tough, which will be out October 1 via Heavenly Recordings.

“The first album was a photograph of the beginnings of the project, recorded without any overall plan,” Wrench says. “Astro Tough is more scripted, but a script that still allowed for lots of improvised scenes. There was more intention behind the songs, and a lot more refining. We weren’t precious about everything being spontaneous and a first take, like on the first record, even though some of it ended up being that. We made a lot more material for this record but chose the tracks that best worked together as an album.”

The first single off the album is “The Doll,” song about a girl and her lost “only friend,” set to a thumping house track descended from Technotronic and Inner City. When it gets to the refrain of “So hard…to let go” it becomes quite haunting.

The video for the song was directed by Paul Kelly, who has made a number of documentaries (including ones of Felt’s Lawrence and Dolly Mixture), and it’s based on Wrench’s experiences as a child. “I had the idea for ‘The Doll’ video while out for a walk,” Wrench says. “I was watching a child walk confidently, checking their surroundings, taking it all in. I started to recall how the world used to look as a child. I was lucky to grow up in the countryside and to be able to walk alone in nature. My father was a sportsman (he won a Commonwealth medal for Wales for Weightlifting) and a PE teacher, so I used to go with him and spend time in empty sports venues. There is a special atmosphere to places built for crowds when they are empty. It struck me that a video based on a child exploring these empty spaces and finding something that had been lost would make a really fitting film for our track The Doll.”

Watch the video for “The Doll,” and check out Astro Tough’s album art and tracklist below.

Tracklist:
01. The Doll
02. LaLaLa It’s The Good Life
03. The English Manipulator
04. He Called Me Bambi
05. Blue Tits
06. First Move
07. Driven By Beef
08. Trouble In Business Class
09. Black Lipstick
10. Farmer