Drops, by Steven Adams

Drops

by Steven Adams

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Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Includes digital pre-order of Drops. You get 2 tracks now (streaming via the free Bandcamp app and also available as a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more), plus the complete album the moment it’s released.

digital album releases November 10, 2023

item ships out on or around November 3, 2023

edition of 500

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Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
Includes digital pre-order of Drops. You get 2 tracks now (streaming via the free Bandcamp app and also available as a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more), plus the complete album the moment it’s released.

digital album releases November 10, 2023

item ships out on or around November 3, 2023

Purchasable with gift card

£10 GBP or more

You own this
Digital Album
Streaming + Download

Pre-order of Drops. You get 2 tracks now (streaming via the free Bandcamp app and also available as a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more), plus the complete album the moment it’s released.

Purchasable with gift card

releases November 10, 2023

£7 GBP or more

You own this

1.	Out To Sea
2.	Living In The Local Void 03:59	lyrics	buy track
Every morning in the local void We make a choice about the day ahead Knowing that we're up against the clock The little battles inside our heads The breadcrumb trail in the labyrinth The notes we left for ourselves As if the rock knows what's under it As if the future was a monolith And the void was our dearest old friend I’m not asking you I’m not telling you I’m just showing you What you already know There’s nothing here There’s nothing here There’s nothing here And you’ll never get tired of living in the local void How could you ever get tired of living in the local void? Every morning in the local void Another chance to start again New broom clean sheet blank slate A way to erase the past And build something beautiful Looking up and never looking back As if the clock was a sentinel Instead of something that we bow down to And the void was avoidable and kind I’m not asking you I’m not telling you I’m just showing you What you already know There’s no one here There’s no one here There’s no one here And you’ll never get tired of living in the local void How could we ever get tired of living in the local void? We will never get tired of living in the local void
3.	Moderation 03:37	lyrics	buy track
see me coming maybe don’t say my name all things in moderation reading the menu checking the rules a two pint hero with the half-pill blues still a long way from the edge both hands on the wheel at all times speed up past the funhouse in those sensible shoes every night's a school night eyes in the middle distance hands where I can see them quarter past nine quarter to three change down to second park up for a breather too much excitement could break a believer still a long way from the edge both hands on the wheel at all times speed up past the funhouse in those sensible shoes every night's a school night see me coming maybe don't say my name all things in good time looking both ways check my flies for a breach suburban wingman too pale for a beach still a long way from the edge. both hands on the wheel at all times speed up past the funhouse in those sensible shoes every night's a school night
4.	Heads Keep Rolling
5.	Making Holes
6.	Pas Moi
7.	Holiday Casual
8.	Fascists
9.	I Tried To Keep It Light
10.	Day Trip
11.	Cheap Wine Sad Face

about

“A national musical treasure" The Guardian

Steven Adams, formerly of The Broken Family Band releases new album DROPS on Fika Recordings in November 2023.

Since calling time on TBFB at the height of their success, Adams has released half a dozen albums under various names (Singing Adams, Steven James Adams, Steven Adams & The French Drops), his witty, incisive lyrics and melodic sensibilities taking in DIY indie rock, folky introspection, and off-kilter pop hooks.

Originally from South Wales, Adams now lives in East London.

“Every record I’ve made has been in a hurry of some sort” says Adams of his new album, “and with this one I took my time”. DROPS is the first album to be credited to him as a solo artist since 2016’s Old Magick, his first new music since 2020, and his noisiest record to date.

Armed with a new batch of material, he began by upping sticks to the Welsh countryside to experiment with drummer Daniel Fordham and bassist David Stewart - both formerly of psych oddballs The Drink. The trio then took the songs to Big Jelly, a converted chapel on the south coast, with co-producer Simon Trought (Comet Gain, Johnny Flynn, The Wave Pictures) to lay down the basic tracks for DROPS.

Eschewing a full band set up (“I wanted to concentrate on one thing at a time”), recording sessions in East London followed with Laurie Earle (Absentee) on guitar and Michael Wood (Hayman Kupa Band, Michaelmas) on keyboards.

Adams then took the recordings home and to the French countryside, to work alone.“I finally got my head around home recording in 2020, while things were a bit quiet. Once I worked out how to record things I realised I didn’t have to think about time. I could let the songs evolve and change once we had the basic tracks down. After a while I started to think of them as paintings; trying something one morning, painting over it in the afternoon and attempting something completely different… it was about enjoying the process, making some bangers, playing around... and giving Simon the producer a mess to sort out when it came to mixing the record". Whenever Tom from Fika Recordings checked in to see how the album was progressing Adams would reply, “it’s taking ages but it’ll sound like it was recorded in an afternoon”.

The result is a dynamic and spirited collection of songs, with Adams's love of 90/00s US underground rock (Pavement's Bob Nastanovich is a fan) to the fore.

DROPS is a sonically compelling piece of work: from bleak/exultant opener Out to Sea and the motorik Living in the Local Void to the weirdly funereal Fascists (where Adams imagines the “little skip in our steps” that we’ll have upon outliving some baddies), and Day Trip's psychedelia in miniature. There are also moments of tenderness: the avalanche of empathy on closing track Cheap Wine Sad Face, and I Tried to Keep it Light’s “worse things could happen… I don’t know how, but give me time”.

Adams says: “I'm preoccupied by the passing of time and the way it affects how we feel. This record is about time and bewilderment and trying to make sense of things".

“…astonishing tenderness in its simplicity … brilliant lyrics.” Q Magazine
“…the tunes are instant and uplifting, but the real wallop comes from the lyrical imagery.” The Guardian
“…barbed modern life chronicles.” UNCUT

credits

releases November 10, 2023

Players: Steven Adams, Laurie Earle,Daniel Fordham, David Stewart, Michael Wood, Simon Trought
Engineers: Simon Trought, Steven Adams, Michael Wood, Daniel Fordham
Mixing and mastering: Simon Trought at Soup Studios
Art: Tom Crawford
Design: Tom Ashton
Lettering: Dan Hillier
Image reproduction: Richard Deal
Hosts: Mikey Collins, Al Harle, Sadie Butler, Anna Butler, Simon Butler, Jude Rogers, Claire Palfreyman, Neil Palfreyman, Lucy Hurst
Recorded at Big Jelly, Soup Studios, Hackney Road Studios, La Cour du Liège, Le Vernet-Chaméane, Woodshed, Monnow Log, The Funhouse
Songs: Steven Adams