Savages lead singer Jehnny Beth has shared her latest single “Innocence,” from her forthcoming debut solo record To Love is to Live. “Innocence” follows previous singles “Flower” and “I’m the Man,” and it also comes with a new video featuring live footage from a rehearsal. The album release date was pushed back June 12 (via Caroline Records), and the decision was made due to Beth’s desire to support independent record stores.
“Record stores are where I found myself as a teenager, digging through albums that ultimately shaped who I have become,” Beth says. “To release my first ever solo album in a way that would leave them out felt wrong to me; luckily, we were able to find a date that would allow us to release the physical and digital album at the same time.”
“Innocence” opens with bold, pitched-down vocals and bare percussive stomps before Beth grabs the reins, railing against the romanticism of urban utopias. It’s a slightly hair-raising ode to alienation and loneliness, cloaked in Beth’s trademark jet-black smoke and spellbinding presence.
To Love is to Live, was recorded in Los Angeles, London, and Paris, and it features a number of big names like producers Flood, Atticus Ross and longtime co-creator Johnny Hostile, plus The xx’s Romy Madley Croft, actor Cillian Murphy, and IDLES’ Joe Talbot.
Beth will also release her first book, Crimes Against Love Memories (C.A.L.M.), a collection of erotic short stories and photography, in July via White Rabbit.
Listen to “Innocence” below, and preorder To Love is to Live here.
