Credit: Danielle Fricke
Today, enigmatic polymath Keaton Henson has shared two new singles from his highly anticipated new album Parader – the introspective “Past It” and the incisive “Loose Ends”. The tracks will be the last to come ahead of the albums release on 21st Nov via Play It Again Sam.
Parader marks Henson’s ninth studio album and his first since 2024’s Somnambulant Cycles. It also follows his recent return single “Lazy Magician” (co-written by Ratboys’ Julia Steiner), which was released in July, earning support from the likes of Rolling Stone UK, Crack, The Line Of Best Fit, The New Cue, Stereogum, Under The Radar, and GoldFlakePaint, who said it hinted “at a bold new chapter on the horizon; a restless and romantic re-defining.”
Whereas that single nodded to Henson beginning to shed the “quiet boy” persona that has defined much of his career – if we’re to omit his myriad efforts composing for film and theatre, an electronic side project, his classical offerings, his illustration and writing work – the new album sees him fully embracing the grunge-infused sounds of his youth. This was expanded upon with his last single “Insomnia”, which was announced alongside the new album and saw Henson entwining aching self-observation with a defiance he terms as “musical snark”.
Today’s new songs “Past It” and “Loose Ends” capture the two ends of Henson’s journey both personally and musically across the forthcoming record. The first, a nostalgia-soaked evaluation of his career as a musician, is delivered through a crackling, lo-fi hum reminiscent of Christian Lee Hutson or Phoebe Bridgers. While awash with self-doubt, the self-reflective daydream is permeated by an understanding of his own needs. “This one’s a bit meta,” says Henson. “It’s me looking at ageing and growing older as a musician. But also reflecting on the whole idea of a 37-year-old man singing the kinds of songs I sing, especially the way I am on this album. Sometimes you can catch your reflection while writing songs and I have these thoughts, usually ending with wondering if anyone will even hear it.”
The latter of the two tracks “Loose Ends”, sees him once again revisiting that musical snark from the last single, carrying a American garage-rock undercurrent in the lurking distortion and its combative rhythm, the taunting cry of “Oh me, oh my” bears an argumentative edge in its sardonic dark tone. “It’s referential of music from my youth,” continues Henson. “The kind of early 2000s rock bands from America. It’s pretty sarcastic. It’s about feeling like you’re guilting someone into staying with you. It’s pretty snarky, self-loathing and dark, maybe contrasting the fun of the music”.
HEAR/SHARE “PAST IT” AND “LOOSE ENDS” HERE
WATCH/SHARE THE LYRIC VIDEO FOR “PAST IT” HERE
Single artwork
Those acquainted with Henson’s work will surely be familiar with his well-worn reputation as a softly spoken, introverted figure who rarely performs live – in a 15-year career he’s performed less than 40 times. Since emerging with his debut record Dear… in 2010, Henson has garnered critical acclaim for his mastery at weaving heart-on-sleeve vulnerability into emotionally poignant, folk-tinged outpourings. No stranger to anxiety’s heavy weight, he’s earned a devoted fan base from a self-imposed distance – shying from the spotlight to offer up the finite part of himself he’s willing to give away. “Sadness I suppose” he once confessed, “is a feeling of which I have an excess of.”
What unravels across Parader’s 12 tracks is an introspective autopsy of time as it distorts and folds to alter and inhabit the songwriter’s present. “There are these disjointed snapshots,” he explains, “memories across time popping up amongst this collection of thoughts about what it feels like to be this age and a musician.”
These glimpses of Henson’s past, whether channelled in his lyrics or musically exposed in sneering riffs, might start to defy preconceptions of our reclusive balladeer. In a nod to his tender tone, Henson’s oft-met comparison to Elliott Smith, while The Independent once dubbed him the “British Jeff Buckley”, but, like the aforementioned pair, his early beginnings also took root in far heavier sounds. “Prior to being a mostly quiet musician I played in hardcore and emo bands,” he shares. It’s these snapshots of time that run amok on Parader, nostalgic distortions splintering the timeline’s once-linear path.
To piece Parader together, Henson collaborated with a wealth of talent who could harness these influences and bring them into the light. Production duties were split between Luke Sital-Singh, who Henson soon discovered “grew up in a similar area at a similar time, so our reference points were the same,” and Alex Farrar (Wednesday/Snail Mail): “the king of that loud, snarky American DIY sound.” The intimately tender “Furl” also found a first-time co-writer in his wife, artist and musician Danielle Fricke, while Henson worked with Ratboys’ Julia Steiner on the earlier mentioned “Lazy Magician” A downtrodden duet that unfolds like a haunting daydream before winding guitars soar, Henson explains: “Julia’s voice is so evocative of that sound to me, it reminds me of when I first heard Rilo Kiley. She has a lot of the suburban magic-realism of the American bands I loved back then.”
From early days in London and his career as a visual artist – illustrating for the likes of Enter Shikari, Dananananaykroyd, and Oli Sykes’ Drop Dead – to the overwhelm of musical renown and his retreat from LA, to the here and now; 37 years old, married, chopping wood in the quietude of his countryside home, there is a wealth of life experience for Henson to draw from. Yet in this moment, he comes somewhat full circle with apparitions of a young Keaton loitering outside the local skate shop, a teenager catching American punk bands in the suburbs of London. “It’s definitely pulling from the things I listened to when I was a young, but they’re being spat out through the lens of me and my career now. The album is like a weird ‘me’ version of that stuff musically.”
Under the weight of this poignant introspection, it’s hard to ignore that Henson’s ruminations also harbor traces of earned experience. Of the aching exasperation recurring throughout Parader, Henson notes, “there’s a lot of frustration in the record at not having conquered life, or my often mutinous brain” And yet, it is this honesty, earnestly dispatched through heartwrenching outpourings, that make the record feel quintessentially Keaton Henson. However, Parader has legitimate confidence. “It’s not me pretending to be anything I’m not,” Henson explains. “I think it’s just me accepting that part of me is this. It’s louder and brasher, but not from a performative point of view. Maybe I’m just accepting that that is all part of me as well.”
As the record closes out, final track “Performer” brings us full circle to the question of the album’s title – the two intrinsically linked. As he sings, “I’ll show my scars to you no matter who you are,” Henson acknowledges the emotional pains of being a musician in the public eye, with the relentless march of time a grudging ally in delivering his stories: “I am the parader. The person who parades around showing their wounds for a living.”
PARADER IS OUT 21ST NOVEMBER VIA PLAY IT AGAIN SAM – PRE-ORDER HERE
Album artwork
Tracklisting:
1) Don’t I Just
2) Insomnia
3) Lazy Magician (ft. Julia Steiner)
4) Past It
5) Conversation Coach
6) Furl (ft. Danielle Fricke)
7) Loose Ends
8) Operator
9) Tell Me So
10) Tourniquet
11) Day In New York
12) Performer
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