Keaton Henson announces new album 'Parader' | out 21/11

Today, enigmatic polymath Keaton Henson has shared details of his highly anticipated new album Parader. Out 21st November via Play It Again Sam, the announcement comes alongside the release of a sardonic new single titled Insomnia.

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 last 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. Across the record, the elusive songwriter melds emotional darkness, melancholy, and simmering frustration as he reckons with the hauntings of his past. Lacing fuzzy distortion and surging guitars amongst the confessional vulnerability that has long been a hallmark of his offerings, Henson explains, “I was always somewhat nervous about being too loud, but I sat down to write this record and it just came out.”

Today’s new single Insomnia expands further on this new direction, entwining aching self-observation with a defiance Keaton terms “musical snark”. Rife with an American heft in its fuzz-laden instrumentation, echoes of his past are creeping into frame. As he sings, “the haunted 7-Eleven’s open all night,” Henson’s timeline is fragmenting, pulling him back more than a decade to the year he lived in California.

“I’m singing about the fact that I can't sleep from my bedroom in wild rural Sussex, looking out over the fields, but then it’s like there's suddenly a 7-Eleven in the middle of the field, old memories invading my present” he explains, recalling insomnia-induced night walks around Los Angeles. The single is accompanied by a stunning animated stop motion video made by Henson himself which reflects the dreaminess and surrealism that comes with those long nights.