MONEY have shaed the video for their alternative Christmas Carol  “A Cocaine Christmas and an Alcoholic’s New Year”. Songwriter, Jamie Lee’s inspiration lies within the feeling of finding people at Christmas time to be “like Marilyn Monroe at a cocktail party” and himself amongst them “someone ugly like Jean Genet”. The track is from their new album Suicide Songs, while the video was shot live at the White Hotel in Salford. Download the track for free below.

In 2013, MONEY released their acclaimed debut album The Shadow Of Heaven, following only a handful of concerts that felt more like communions in out-of-the-way venues, advertised only by word-of-mouth. The record sounded similarly crafted – all haunted melody and atmosphere, invested with an unusually ambitious and uncompromising lyrical zeal. This was a band that invested as much in what they meant as how they sounded.

The creation of Suicide Songs was far from an easy ride. In 2014 singer Jamie Lee moved back to London, with, “the objective of becoming the best writer I could be, writing poetry as well as songs that were connected as kin.” Meanwhile, Billy and Charlie continued to write and produce music in Manchester. Reunited in the city of their formation, Jamie recalls drunkenness and mental ill-health, lost in self-doubt, of “internal disputes about the music’s direction, songs but no palpable direction. The outlook was often fairly bleak. But we stuck together.” Producer Charlie Andrew persuaded MONEY to relocate back to South London and after three months of creativity in a Brixton studio all the earlier strife was suddenly worth it as MONEY emerged with the magnificent Suicide Songs.

Out of a renewed, richer palate of sound, a sense of greater self-belief has emerged. But as its title suggests, Suicide Songs doesn’t shirk from the emotional truths that birthed it. “I wanted the album to sound like it was ‘coming from death’ which is where these songs emerged,” Jamie explains. “The record is morbid and bleak, and never resolves itself. The only real kind of triumphant realization is being able to express the morbidity of the situation I found myself in.”

As for that album title. The band is well aware of the potency of two words such as Suicide Songs. “It seemed to make sense for the period, since I was dabbling with an unworldly attitude toward life, though that’s changed now,” Jamie vouches. “But we don’t want it to come across just in a negative way. We don’t want to glorify mental illness either.”

“Above all else, I’m just trying to project and portray a poetic truth. Suicide is about anonymity, to the point where you don’t exist, which I definitely feel in my songwriting and as a person. But rather than writing myself out of anonymity, I want to remain there, in this record at least. It’s recognizing a kind of sacrificial nature, in making artistic choices. By rummaging around in your feelings and trying to make sense of life, to the detriment of your health, there might be some poetic value to what you have created.”

MONEY have also announced an extensive UK headline tour to follow the release of the album including an opening night Manchester show at the 1400 capacity Ritz and a London headline show at the Village Underground.

Suicide Songs, which will be released 29th January on Bella Union. The album artwork is by Elliot Kennedy.

Suicide Songs Tracklisting

I Am The Lord

I’m Not Here

You Look Like A Sad Painting On Both Sides Of The Sky

Night Came

Suicide Song

Hopeless World

I’ll Be The Night

All My Life

A Cocaine Christmas and an Alcoholic’s New Year