Bobby Gillespie (Primal Scream) and Jehnny Beth (Savages) have shared a new track and video off their forthcoming release Utopian Ashes, available July 2, 2021 via Third Man Records.

While recent single “Remember We Were Lovers” was notable for the duo’s tight, naturalistic vocal harmonies, “Chase It Down” excels at the opposite approach. Introducing the album’s story of a withering marriage, Gillespie’s despondent vocals hit hard with the brutal admission, “I don’t even love you any more.” Beth’s response is the polar opposite, her impassioned plea full of hope that the relationship can somehow be salvaged.

The first chapter to their duo’s fictional narrative is heightened by the drama of the music which is dominated by luscious, rousing strings and syncopated guitar. As with the rest of the album, the song features Primal Scream’s Andrew Innes (guitar), Martin Duffy (piano) and Darrin Mooney (drums) with Beth’s music partner Johnny Hostile (bass).

Utopian Ashes explores the loss, miscommunication and emotional inarticulacy that a married couple experience as they realize that their relationship is breaking down. The collection draws on the tradition of country soul classics, such as Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris’s “Grievous Angel” and George Jones and Tammy Wynette’s “We Go Together,” to deal with the heavy realities of love turning sour. It’s an album for people who have dealt with the inevitable sadness that comes with age and acknowledged the realities of life. There is no sweetening of the pill, but it does achieve what should be the goal of all good art: to make us feel less alone. And while it’s not autobiographical, it channels heartfelt truth from the songwriters’ own experiences.

“In the same way you create characters for a novel, we’ve created characters here,” says Jehnny Beth. “But you put yourself in it, because you’re trying to understand the human situation. The singing has to be authentic. That’s all that matters.”

“When you write a song you marry the personal with the fictional and make art,” adds Gillespie. “I was thinking about two people living alone, together but apart, existing and suffering in a psychic malaise, who plough on because of responsibilities and commitments. It’s about the impermanence of everything — an existential fact that everyone has to face at some point in their lives.”

They first met in 2015, when they were both invited to perform with Suicide at the Barbican. The following summer she joined Primal Scream on stage for a duet of Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood’s ‘Some Velvet Morning’, which cemented their connection. In 2017, they convened in Paris for sessions, accompanied by Beth’s musical partner Johnny Hostile and the rest of Primal Scream. Their initial electronic-focused ideas gradually evolved into a richer tapestry of soul, country, blues and rock ‘n’ roll.

Gillespie explains, ‘I wanted to put pain back into music. I wasn’t hearing a lot of it in modern rock music”.

BOBBY GILLESPIE & JEHNNY BETH
UTOPIAN ASHES
THIRD MAN RECORDS

1. Chase It Down
2. English Town
3. Remember We Were Lovers
4. Your Heart Will Aways Be Broken
5. Stones of Silence
6. You Don’t Know What Love Is
7. Self-Crowned King of Nothingness
8. You Can Trust Me Now
9. Living A Lie
10. Sunk In Reverie

Pre-order Utopian Ashes HERE