Sondre Lerche announces new double album featuring CHAI, Mary Lattimore and more

"Cut" and "Turns Out I'm Sentimental After All" will appear on Avatars of Love with last year's "Dead of the Night" single, and follow Lerche's annual Christmas pop cover of Doja Cat and SZA's "Kiss Me More".

Lerche says of the two tracks, "I originally wrote "Cut" imagining a love affair between actors on a film set, where the lines are constantly blurred between what is real, what's performative. I saw it as a film noir, but during the recording it no longer felt black and white, it felt colourful and erotic and it reminded me of some of Brian DePalma's 80s neo-noir films that I love. The music video also captures some of this."

""Turns Out I'm Sentimental After All" was the last song I wrote before leaving LA right as the pandemic started," Lerche continues. "I like the contrast between it and "Cut", which it follows on the album. "Cut" tries to capture an ephemeral feeling that may not even be real, while "Sentimental" can't help but fall back into nostalgia, while second guessing a central life choice. I remember thinking of "Both Sides Now", and how Joni wrote that so young, and how she probably could add many new verses and perspectives to it later in life, if need be. And I thought about some of my own songs where I made statements that no longer correspond with the way I see the world or myself. So it's also an ode to songs and the many truths and phases they document and contain. It's a very special and tender song to me."

Avatars of Love will be Lerche's first album since 2020's Patience, and will include collaborations with CHAI, Mary Lattimore, Felicia Douglass (Dirty Projectors), Rodrigo Alarcon, Ana Müller, and a special guest that's yet to be announced.

He adds of the album, "This is without a doubt the biggest, boldest, most complex thing I’ve ever done. At the same time, it was also the easiest, most natural, and most liberating. As an artist, it’s the kind of project you always dream about."

Tracklist:

1. Guarantee That I’d Be Loved
2. Dead of the Night
3. Will We Ever Comprehend (feat. Rodrigo Alarcon, Ana Müller)
4. Cut
5. Turns Out I’m Sentimental After All
6. What Makes Me Tick
7. My Love Still Waits
8. Avatars of Love
9. Summer In Reverse (feat. CHAI)
10. Now She Sleeps Beside Me
11. Special Needs (feat. Felicia Douglass)
12. The Other Side of Ecstasy
13. Magnitude of Love (feat. Mary Lattimore)
14. Alone in the Night