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Ledher Blue release new album ‘Fait Divers’

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Ledher Blue’s new album ‘Fait Divers’ came from an existential crisis. Admittedly, it was shameful to accept that the most generic of internal conflicts were at hand: the “what’s the purpose of life?”s and the “why am I here?”s out of every self-help book seemed adequate, but needed to be articulated in a particular way. What was the purpose of my life until now; “Why am I here?” Zé from Ledher Blue thought as he got into Dublin.

Ledher Blue are the product of two distinctively different individuals that the waves of life comically decided to beach in a northern town of Portugal – Guimarães. The city is known for its historical meaning in the birth of Portugal, for its nasty hooligans, for its emigrant parvenus, its domestic parvenus, its humble proletariat, its shame, envy, resignation and most importantly a mystical ability of seeing the depressed times – which have long been in the region – united in empathetic jealousy, certain that betters days are coming. The club keeps losing but we’ll be champions, the people are poor but we’ll get better, everything may be bad but he will rise in a foggy sunrise.

Zé and Pedro, the pair behind Ledher Blue, encapsulated the diversity of the town in an existential way. One was always happy, one was always longing, one found a girl, the other found the one, one flourished, the other stagnated when one fell in love with the bars and was now bored the other said, “don’t gamble your life for a couple of poems”, but impressively they would always converge from different perspectives to the same idea. Certainly, one loved Illiad for Aquiles and the other for Hector, one for Vronski another for Levin, one for Grey the other for Vane, one for Liam another for Noel… what matters is that instinctively – or “zoroastrianly” – the pure meaning for their message was not what each wanted to say but the product of the pressure. This conflict was in their youth the birth of friendship and in their slope the birth of the band.

That is why one can say that one song looks happy with mournful feel, or rebellious with fearful grooves; it can be satirical in lyricism and classical in structure, it tries to be a singular unitarian message independent of the peripheral chatter. It’s alternative sometimes, post punk in the others, even poppy on some choruses, but most importantly it always feels original and unique.

Zé’s move to Dublin meant a big separation for the friends and bandmates, but most importantly brought a new perspective for their old problem. The problematic youth from Guimarães, their problematic youth, was not unique to the land. It could be observed on the Irish town. The lifeless eyes, the change dribbling in an oversized pocket, the fortuity misfortune, the keys in the bathroom, a generation sprayed with anxiety and embalmed in panic. It was paralysing. The song forcefully quieted on the lips of a dead philosopher was slivering to the bones of our time. It was as if everybody – even unconsciously – believed that regret was the only certainty of existence; that unescapable longing for the unlived life. And as the uniqueness of our situation dissolved, as our small town became countries, we found new binoculars, not only to inspect reality but most importantly our own. Transcendentally, we found our true selves, which we may have seen before, but were now so overwhelmed to the point of acceptance. As theory imprisoned and pressured reality, the only answer was King Sebastian. The individual who could look down at Narcissus smugly and was able to curse an whole nation was mystified as the long awaited saviour. Sebastian may have lead Portugal to the abyss when he disappeared in the desert but with it created a myth; the myth that he would return in a foggy morning and save us all. Hope. This hope was what united our town. What united the past generations from this existential dread and what would cure our generation. Sebastianism was the cure, it was clear.

“Not only the message was so clear it seemed to dazzle but also the universe, the habitat of each song was drawn.”, says Ledher Blue. “We felt rain during ‘Dublinesque’, the popped dark smoke from old cars for ‘Sorrows of the Amended Hearts’, the lady on the bus in ‘Craic’, the winey red out of a absolutist cape emerged on ‘Èlan’ with libertarian scarlet blues and shadowy greens, we heard the people talking in the pubs of ‘Fun’, we could distinguish the whiteness of their teeth; it stopped being a group of songs and became something else. Complete. Portugality embroiled in Irish thread. A message for all but about none, a concept for the unknown based on the past, a tale without morals.”

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Acclaimed US singer-songwriter Juliet Lloyd to tour the UK for the first time this summer.

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Shortly after releasing her sophomore album in 2007, US-based singer-songwriter Juliet Lloyd walked away from music completely for more than 10 years, feeling burned out and unhappy with her career progression like so many other independent artists. After going through a divorce in 2019 and in the midst of a global pandemic, she found herself pulled back toward the siren call of songwriting and again making the leap to pursue it full time. Her latest album ‘Carnival’, released in 2024, is in many ways the culmination of those decisions, and the reintroduction of an artist who now has the wisdom of experience.

There’s an unmistakable urgency you can feel when a song is written and performed from a place of complete honesty. That feeling permeates ‘Carnival’. “I’ve always been envious of writers who say they write songs because they have to, because they had these things they just had to get out of themselves,” Juliet says. “I had never really felt that way until this album. I’ve become someone who writes because they have to.”

Stylistically, ‘Carnival’ draws on a range of influences from Laurel Canyon-era singer/songwriters, to Lilith Fair rockers, to confessional country/folk balladeers, to indie pop. The central theme of the record and that of its title track is not being too precious about any one experience or decision. Take them for what they are, live in the moment, and move on when they’re done. It acknowledges also that memory can be subjective, and ambiguous—was an experience ultimately a good thing or a bad thing? And whose memory can you rely on to determine the answer to that question?

‘Carnival’ doesn’t just deal with the complexities of ending relationships, it also deals with all the feelings that come with moving on. The album’snine songs feature evocative storytelling that reveals a simple truth: when the carnival inevitably leaves town, you’re left with an empty parking lot. And how you remember, it is a choice. As Juliet sings in the title track, “If only there was a way you could bottle up that feeling / and you’d drink it in / when the days are short and you long.”

Across her 20+ year career, Juliet has been admittedly stylistically non-monogamous. Her first full-length album, ‘All Dressed Up’, was released in 2005 and was heavily jazz-influenced- a label that she rejected at the time. “I am a piano player and a woman, so I was immediately compared to Norah Jones—and I bristled at that,” Juliet says. “Listening back now, I can totally see that it was true, and it of course wasn’t a bad thing.” Her follow-up release ‘Leave the Light On,’ came out two years later and featured a slick piano-pop production that led to five of its songs being placed on reality TV shows on MTV and VH1. Coming back after her 10-year break from writing and recording, Juliet released ‘High Road’, a collection of five Americana/soul-tinged songs produced by Jim Ebert (Meredith Brooks, Shai) that earned her widespread recognition and songwriting awards both in her home region of DC as well as nationally.

Now with her first ever UK tour scheduled for July 2025, Juliet has also dropped a completely brand-new single ‘Wild Again’, which like ‘Carnival’, was written with and produced by Todd Wright (Lucy Woodward, Butch Walker, Toby Lightman). ‘Wild Again’, however, charts yet another new step in Juliet’s journey.

Carnival’, is full of deeply personal songs that are drawn from my real-life experiences and relationships. Coming out of that album cycle, I was feeling a little exhausted by my own navel-gazing and I was craving inspiration elsewhere. So, a lot of the songs I’m writing now are an evolution of sorts – focused more on external stimuli and finding the personal stories and humanity in that. Wild Again is a perfect example of this,” she explains.

The idea for ‘Wild Again’ was born out of a NY Times podcast Juliet listened to about the real-life efforts to return the whale that played Willy in the iconic movie ‘Free Willy’ back into the wild.

“It’s an insane, heartbreaking story that asks all kinds of thorny questions about human responsibility and humility and what’s the “right” thing to do and is that the same as the “kind” thing to do. There was a line that one of the trainers said in the podcast, explaining that they were trying to “train him to be wild again.” The complete absurdity of that statement hit me in the moment, and I immediately started jotting down lyrical ideas”, Juliet says.

Catch Juliet Lloyd on her UK tour this July:

1st July: The Folklore Rooms / Brighton
2nd July: The Hyde Tavern / Winchester
3rd July: Hen and Chicken / Bristol (CRH Music promotions)
4th July: Artisan Tap Hartshill / Stoke-on-Trent

5th July: Waggon & Horses, Nottingham

6th July: Cafe#9 / Sheffield
7th July: Hyde Park Book Club / Leeds
10th July: FortyFive Vinyl Café / York
11th July: The Muddy Puddle / London
13th July: The Wrotham Arms / Broadstairs

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