Gruff Rhys announces ‘Seeking New Gods’ (watch “Loan Your Loneliness” video)

Gruff Rhys is back with his sixth solo album, Seeking New Gods, which will be out May 21 via Rough Trade.

Seeking New Gods started off as a biography of active East Asian volcano Mount Paektu, but as he investigated it, his ideas for songs became more personal, taking on themes he’s explored since at least Super Furry Animals’ “Slow Life.” “The album is about people and the civilizations, and the spaces people inhabit over periods of time,” says Gruff. “How people come and go but the geology sticks around and changes more slowly. I think it’s about memory and time. It’s still a biography of a mountain, but now it’s a Mount Paektu of the mind. You won’t learn much about the real mountain from listening to this record but you will feel something, hopefully.”

First single from the record is “Loan Your Loneliness,” a rolling, glammy super-catchy song that’s about a “soloing guitarist accidentally inventing color TV.” Watch the video for the single below.

Always a technological innovator, Gruff is working with BBC’s R&D department to “make use of their Audio Orchestrator technology to create an at-home, multi-device immersive listening experience for fans.” Stay tuned for more details on that and check out the album art and tracklist below.

Tracklist:
1) Mausoleum Of My Former Self
2) Can’t Carry On
3) Loan Your Loneliness
4) Seeking New Gods
5) Hiking In Lightning
6) Holiest Of The Holy Men
7) The Keep
8) Everlasting Joy
9) Distant Snowy Peaks