Jungle returned with the new single ‘Keep Moving’ and announced details of their third album ‘Loving In Stereo’. Watch the video of the new track below, following our chat with the duo.
The band’s comeback comes on the one-year anniversary of the announcement of the first coronavirus blockade in the UK, and although the band did not plan it – “I hung up my phone in the middle of last year,” said the band’s J Lloyd NME – ‘Keep Moving’ fell just in time to create the soundtrack for a summer that, hopefully, will see joy returning to our lives, finally.
The comeback single was one of the first tracks written for what would become the new album ‘Loving In Stereo’.
“We had the hook and it just wouldn’t go,” said Lloyd NME. “It was like, ‘God leave me alone for a second!’ But it was so infectious and we kept going back to it. “
A 25-minute version of the track also exists on a hard drive somewhere, which shows the pair playing the track repeatedly in their various guises, a version they hope to see daylight on the road.
Jungle’s ‘Loving In Stereo’ arrives three years after the second album ‘For Ever’, and sees the duo snuggling comfortably into their skin. While albums one and two saw the band working within a structured model, their third effort sees them significantly expanding their horizons and exploding the idea of how a Jungle song can be broadly open.
“I really think these are the most Jungle songs we’ve made,” said Lloyd, with bandmate Thomas McFarland in agreement: “[This album] it looks like what we’ve always had in our heads. If you go back and compare it to the first album, they look smaller and more introverted. It feels like a whole new level. “
The evolution of the band is shown most impressively in ‘Truth’, which jumps along with sunny melodies reminiscent of the Beach Boys. “It’s like the ‘month of May’ [Arcade Fire‘s] ‘The Suburbs’, ”said Lloyd as a means of comparison, comparing it to the change of pace represented in the Canadian band’s fiery punk soccer ball. “’May’ was like, ‘Oh, isn’t that Arcade Fire? What are they doing? ‘”Lloyd added. “And then he slowly takes that energy to him, and it works. This song was a bit of a trap that we wanted to put on the album. I can’t wait to piss off some Jungle fans with this. “
The new album sees the duo invite guest vocalists for the first time, with Swiss Tamil artist Priya Ragu adding vocals on ‘Goodbye My Love’ and American rapper Bas adding new textures on ‘Romeo’. “We ask ourselves these things,” added McFarland about the prospect of broader collaboration. “’Can we put other people’s voices on our tracks?’” The answer, when it came, was definitive: “Of course we can. We are fucking music producers. “
‘Loving In Stereo’ also shows the pair breaking with the rigid structures they used to create their first two albums. “We went to the Church’s London studio,” explained McFarland, “which is a big change for us, because we are the ones who open up. The pressure is increasing because you only have one week, and you have sections of strings coming in, you have all these parts. It’s all kind of chaotic and magical, and I think that’s why there’s this energy on the album – everything just went up a notch. “
Reflecting on 2018’s ‘For Ever’, the band described the album as a midpoint between where they came from in their debut and where they wanted to go in the future, while also fearing to lose the fans they waved early hits to. like ‘Time’ and ‘Busy Earnin ”.
“The first [album] it was like a project for something, “Lloyd explained,” and then the second was like trying to do something new, but not giving up the first too much. So, this third one is the realization of everything we’ve tried to do. “
Looking back at the “naive blindness” of his reaction to the initial success, Lloyd said: “We think, ‘We are really good.’ We thought we were doing Beyoncé tracks with ‘Busy Earnin’. It’s, like, delusional. ‘Nobody can stop us’ ”, they thought.
“At this point, we are the best band in the world for ourselves. So, with the second album, it was a case of ‘How can we not all lose?’ And then this third album? I don’t think we can doubt any clue about that. “
Jungle released ‘Loving In Stereo’ on August 13th. Check out the track list below:
‘Dry your tears’
‘Keep walking’
‘All the time’
‘Romeo’ with Bas
‘Raising You’
‘Bonnie Hill’
‘Fire’
‘Talk about it’
‘No rules’
‘Truth’
‘What do you know about me’
‘Just fly, don’t worry’
‘Goodbye My Love’ with Priya Ragu
‘Can’t stop the stars’
The band will also go on tour later this year. Check out the tour dates below.
SEPTEMBER
Wednesday, 1 – London, Brixton O2 Academy
Thursday 2 – London, Brixton O2 Academy
Friday, 17 – Manchester, O2 Victoria Warehouse