Andy Stott will release Never The Right Time, a new album, on Modern Love.

Stott, based in Manchester, northern England, began working on the album in 2020, when he had a different album almost completed and an offer to produce for a completely mainstream artist on the table. Lockdown and months of withdrawal triggered renewed curiosity, promoting a different approach, and he began to record hours of raw material—slow horns, delayed drums, and wondering flutes. Although software made it possible to iron out every kink, Stott tirelessly looked for them, pursuing a sound that was “human in all its awkward asymmetry,” we’re told.

With vocals recorded by Alison Skidmore, the album was finally completed late in the year. We’re told its songs are desolate, melancholy, defiant, and beautiful, and that the sounds echo the music around Stott during those months: Prince, Gavin Bryars, A.R. Kane, Bohren & der Club of Gore, Robert Turman, Cindy Lee, Leila, Catherine Christer Hennix, Junior Boys, and more. Each song is “fuelled by nostalgia and soul searching,” but “all hold true to a vision of music making as a form of renewal and reinvention.”

It’s been a decade since Stott released Passed Me By, his debut. What followed was a process of rapid remodelling, from 2017’s We Stay Together through to 2019’s It Should Be Us, slowly untangling complex ideas into a singular, chaotic body of work that sits somewhere between sound art, techno, and pop.

Tracklisting

01. Away not gone
02. Never the right time
03. Repetitive strain
04. Don’t know how
05. When it hits
06. The beginning
07. Answers
08. Dove stone
09. Hard to Tell

Never The Right Time LP is scheduled for April 16 release on Modern Love. Meanwhile, you can stream “The Beginning” in full below and pre-order the album here.