Name: Sadness Sets Me Free
Brand: Gruff Rhys

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

RT0420LPE3

Colour

Purple

Colour details

Blackberry Neo-Neapolitan Coloured Vinyl

Discogs ID

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: Yes

Format detail

Split Door Sleeve

Format Music GB

Limited edition

Release date

2024-01-26

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier GB

PIAS

Tax rate GB

Standard:20

UPC / Barcode

0191402042009

Total Cap

Purple LP

RT0420LPE2

Brown

Chocolate Neo-Neapolitan Vinyl&nbsp;

[r29584693]

Rough Trade Exclusive: Yes

Split Door Sleeve. Exclusive Shared with Some Welsh Shops

0191402042092

Brown LP | Rough Trade Exclusive

RT0420LP

Black

[r29615596]

Extended format: No

0191402042016

Black LP

RT0420CD

Gatefold Soft Pack with Pull-Out Poster

0191402042023

Artist

Gruff Rhys

Genre GB

Alternative / Modern

Label GB

Rough Trade

Rough Trade is a multinational label that was started by Geoff Travis in 1976 as a London record-shop. It quickly grew into an independent label and distributor, collaborating with notable labels such as 4AD, Factory Records, and One Little Indian. The label's catalogue numbering system for singles/EPs included prefixes like RT### and RTT###CD for different formats. Albums were numbered sequentially as ROUGH### with extensions for different formats.In the early 1990s, Rough Trade faced financial difficulties after expanding into the US market. The US branch was shut down and the German branch ended up in the Zomba Music Group. One Little Indian provided financing and took over the label in the UK, retaining ownership of key releases like A.R. Kane albums. Geoff Travis eventually regained control of Rough Trade around 1999–2000 and re-launched it alongside Tugboat Records.

Singer, guitarist and main songwriter with Super Furry Animals. Gruff Rhys has an eclectic and eccentric musical style, reflected in his solo albums released since 2005. His debut album was recorded entirely in Welsh, followed by several other successful releases. He has collaborated with various artists and contributed to soundtracks. Gruff's music is known for its unique concepts and storytelling.

Newest Listed Items

Vinyl variants, bonus material and signed editions exclusively available from Rough Trade.

Gruff Rhys releases his new album Sadness Sets Me Free via Rough Trade Records. This incredibly is the 25th album he has released in his 35 year career individually, collaboratively and as a member of various bands. Sadness Sets Me Free is also the follow up to 2021’s Seeking new Gods, his first solo top ten record.

Lead-off single “Celestial Candyfloss” is a telling four minute glimpse of the album, revealing the heady wonders and classic pop sounds within. Soaring strings carry the sweet melodies along, anchored by just enough necessary melancholy to add emotional ballast. The eye-popping video was created by long-time collaborator Mark James and compliments the scope and style of the song on a galactic scale.

“Celestial Candyfloss” is, Gruff says, “an attempted pocket symphony about the cosmic lengths that people will travel in the pursuit of love and acceptance. Mark James has brought the Sadness Sets Me Free album cover to life &amp; managed to place me watching TV interference in a shipping container that’s lost in space. For what is apparently the 25th album I’ve had a hand in writing I’ve reverted to a rich seam of inspiration relating to shedding some light on sadness and the general terror of cosmic loneliness.”

And so it was that Gruff and his band – Osian Gwynedd (piano), Huw V Williams (double bass) and former Flaming Lips drummer turned Super Furry Animals archivist Kliph Scurlock (drums) piled into a van driven by the late, legendary tour manager&nbsp;“Dr” Kiko Loiacono and raced from Dunkirk, where they had just played the final show of a tour of Spain and France, to the outskirts of Paris in the early hours of a March morning in 2022. There, in La Frette Studios, a recording facility installed in a 19th-century house, Gruff and his road-hardened group tracked “Sadness Sets Me Free” in just three days. Backing vocals were added along the way by Kate Stables from This Is The Kit along with additional strings and orchestration and it was mixed between Marseille and Cardiff. What finally emerged from these intense bouts of cross-continental activity was Gruff’s most accomplished and beautiful record to date.

In a career that has taken him from the slate-mining towns of north-west Wales, down to the expat communities of Patagonia, up to the Mandan tribe of the Great Plains of North America and across to the Tuareg rock groups of the Saharan Desert, Gruff Rhys, one of Britain’s most beloved and successful singer-songwriters, has always been willing to follow an opportunity, wherever it may lead him.&nbsp;“At this point I quite like working with serendipity,” he says.&nbsp;“Not in a cosmic way, [but] I try and leave things open to chance encounters and chance geography. As I'm around 25 albums in I’m always looking for ways to make a different-sounding record”

Sadness Sets Me Free

Music GB

Discover Sadness Sets Me Free by Gruff Rhys. The 25th album from the beloved singer-songwriter, released by Rough Trade Records. Vinyl records available.