Released: October 7
RJ Thompson returns with his most ambitious music yet on ‘Yearbook’
Arriving two years after his UK Top 5 release ‘Lifeline’, the LP documents the multi-instrumentalist’s journey through the Covid-19 pandemic as he rides a wave of creativity through a period of social isolation.
“I was stuck in a room writing songs on my piano but I was dreaming of something much bigger,” he explains. “Ultimately, for the most part, we’ve all been stuck in rooms for two years, but we were dreaming of all these places we hadn’t been to for ages, all the people we hadn’t seen.
“Dreaming of a much bigger world outside the door is essentially what I’ve been doing with this record.”
Opening with pre-release cut Your Money or Your Life, the track sets the tone for an album that blends classic indie-pop soundscapes with epic synth motifs with an overarching sense of escapism.
Harking back to the full-band sound of his debut long-player, Feel Alive is a storming number that wouldn’t sound out of place on any of The Killers’ albums, while the equally brilliant Rescue You is another example of RJ’s fine pop sensibilities.
While the uptempo moments on ‘Yearbook’ are the most immediate, it’s the more experimental, mid-tempo tracks that best demonstrate his musicianship and lyrical flair.
‘It’s the longest day of the year / I just want to disappear / To a cold, dark December,’ he sings on Longest Day of the Year – a mellow, introspective cut that sees the star reflect back on a different time – while the pairing of acoustic guitars and atmospheric synths on Forest Fires is sublime.
‘You dream widescreen,’ he muses on the brilliant Cutting Room Floor, a track that sees him confront fragments of a failed relationship over an anthemic instrumental begging to be performed live.
The ‘Yearbook’ experience extends beyond the music; the physical record boasts groundbreaking augmented reality technology with bonus content that changes with the time of day, year and weather, via the accompanying free IOS and Android app.
With over 300 living and breathing front covers to discover over time, it’s a unique component that plays on the way we interact with music, once again highlighting RJ’s enduring creativity.
With the odds stacked against him, the singer-songwriter emerges from the dust of the past two years with his strongest, most accomplished material to date; ‘Yearbook’ is a triumph of an album, placing his sound somewhere between Beck and Brandon Flowers, that deserves to be heard and played over and over again – each time with something new to discover…
‘Yearbook’ is available now.
