Page 113 - Liverpool Philharmonic 22-23 Season Coverage Book

Still going strong: John Cale promises a new album in 2023. Photograph: Madeline McManus

There’s nothing low key about the long month of January if it has a new Sam Smith
album in it. The UK superstar’s fourth outing – Gloria – was heralded by their eighth No
1 single, the outre fanfare Unholy; Gloria aims to be Smith’s “boldest statement yet”.
Fresh from his supporting role on last year’s revelatory Lou Reed demos, the venerable
Welsh avant gardesman John Cale continues to surprise at 80, with the release of his
first album of new songs in a decade. Weyes Blood, Actress and Fat White Family are
just three of the questing spirits guesting on Mercy, also out this month. Cale’s tour has
been rescheduled once again, for February.
Against the “heavy, heavy” weight of the world, Scots outliers Young Fathers muster
rhythm, melody and a reinvigorated, back-to-basics approach. Their fourth album
– Heavy Heavy – boasts their most cogent tunes yet and “lets out the demons” in full in
February.
Two of 2023’s most awaited albums don’t yet have firm dates attached; anticipation for
them can only build. Absent from the release schedules since long-ago 2016, PJ Harvey
follows her epic poem of 2022, Orlam, with new music, expected in the summer. Recent
years have seen Harvey take up soundtrack work for TV – The Virtues, Bad Sisters – so
it’s fair to expect a widened sound palette from the two-time Mercury prize winner.
South London rapper Enny impressed with her 2020 debut EP and last year furthered
her reach with the theme tune to All Or Nothing, the Arsenal documentary. A new
track, Champagne Problems, paves the way for a forthcoming project, hotly expected in
2023. Kitty Empire

Art

Philip Guston revisited