KELSEY LU RETURNS WITH “RUNNING TO PAIN” FROM HER LONG AWAITED NEW ALBUM SO HELP ME GOD – DUE JUNE 12TH 2026 VIA DIRTY HIT
Run of intimate Blue Note shows in New York + LA April 2026
Tickets HERE
Kelsey Lu returns with “Running To Pain,” the first single from her long-awaited second album So Help Me God, out June 12 via [new label home] Dirty Hit. Alongside the single arrives a striking new music video starring French actor Garance Marillier (Titane, Raw), directed by BAFTA-winning filmmaker Savanah Leaf and developed in collaboration with Lu.
“Running To Pain” introduces the sonic world of So Help Me God. Built around electronic pulses, distorted guitars, choral swells and dark electronic textures, the track is devotional and dangerous in equal measure, a prayer for the very force you know might undo you.
Produced by Lu alongside Jack Antonoff and Yves Rothman and mixed by Oli Jacobs, So Help Me God is a ten-track record that pushes further into the emotional and sonic unknown, featuring contributions from Sampha, Kamasi Washington and Kim Gordon.
“So Help Me God was built slowly and intentionally across seven years of transformation. Sonically and emotionally it holds so many different worlds at once – devotion and desire, collapse and becoming- trying to make sense of what it means to break, to believe, to long for something without seeing it clearly, and to be reborn again and again and again”.
Shot in Lanzarote’s stark volcanic landscapes, the video for Running To Pain expands that tension into something cinematic, centring on the magnetic connection between Lu and Marillier, a tension that anchors the film’s emotional core. Developed by Lu and Leaf, close collaborators who have previously worked together on scores for Savanah’s projects, the visual language mirrors the album’s core themes of faith, intimacy and transformation, forming the first chapter of a wider cinematic project surrounding So Help Me God.
The album marks Lu’s first full-length release since her critically acclaimed 2019 debut Blood. In the years since, she has built an expansive creative practice across music, film, fashion and contemporary art.
A composer as much as a songwriter, Lu has created original scores for Netflix’s award-winning documentary Daughters and A24’s BAFTA-winning Earth Mama, alongside collaborations with Yves Tumor, Jamie xx, Debbie Harry and Skrillex. Her work also spans visual art and fashion, with creative partnerships including Nan Goldin, Wu Tsang and Jacolby Satterwhite, as well as Gucci, Miu Miu and Bottega Veneta.
Where Blood introduced Lu’s world, lush, orchestral and devotional, So Help Me God is more visceral and confrontational: a record shaped by rupture, transformation and spiritual reckoning.
Lu will perform a series of intimate shows at Blue Note in Los Angeles and New York this April, offering the first chance to experience the new material live.
With So Help Me God, Kelsey Lu steps back into the light, not with resolution, but with something far more compelling: surrender.
Live dates
April 16th – Blue Note Jazz Club, New York
April 17th – Blue Note Jazz Club, New York
April 25th – Blue Note, Los Angeles
April 26th – Blue Note, Los Angeles
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