Shura - I Got Too Sad For My Friends [LP]

Format: LP
Catalogue No.: PIASR1555LP
Barcode: 5400863176396
Release Date: 30 May 2025
Genre: Indie/Alternative

 Five years after her critically acclaimed album ‘forevher’, Shura is back with her highly anticipated third studio album ‘I Got Too Sad For My Friends’. A pastoral blend of chamber pop, Sixties folk and campfire Americana, it builds Shura’s introspective songwriting out into a vast landscape - more tranquil than the soulful bounce of ‘forevher’, and more rustic than the brooding synth-pop of her 2016 debut ‘Nothing’s Real’.
 That landscape is both sonically comforting and representative of her headspace during the writing process, which was one of sadness and isolation. The itinerant emotional state is mirrored in the artwork, which sees Shura perched on a Welsh mountainside in a baggy jumper, ripped jeans, Converse and cobbled-together armour that covers everything except her vital organs - part Kurt Cobain, part Leonardo DiCaprio in ‘Romeo & Juliet’. The image references the French novella ‘The Little Prince’, which follows a young boy who sets out to explore other planets to cure his loneliness.
 Though it’s an album exploring themes of depression and loneliness, ‘I Got Too Sad For My Friends’ is far from dejected it retains Shura’s usual crystalline sound and precision while introducing a different kind of warmth and earthiness.
 Approached like an ‘old school’ record that captures a performance rather than a production, much of the album was recorded live, with the keys, bass, guitar and drums all tracked as a single performance. The vocals were done separately - with the exception of soft funk track ‘Ringpull’.
 The decision to explore a wider breadth of instruments for the first time came from a sense of urgency that was, in part, prompted by the pandemic. “It made me think: this could be over at any minute. I could never get to make a record again. I could never tour again. So my approach to this record was like, if I never get to do this again, what do I want to make sure I’ve done? I want to record live. I want to work with textures I’ve never worked with before. I want to dress up as a gnome bard knight and climb a mountain in
Wales, regret it, and have no one else to blame except for myself because I’m freezing,” she laughs. “So even though it’s not necessarily a maximalist record in terms of how it sounds, the approach was maximal joy for me making it… which is hilarious, because it’s about being miserable!”
 Press - Reviews & features in Gay Times (cover), PAPER Magazine, POPEYE Mag, BRICKS Mag (cover), BEAT Mag, Noisey, FADER, The Telegraph, NME, Vogue, Pitchfork.
 Radio - BBC 6 Music Huw Stephens premiere.
 Further Marketing - Previous brand collaborations with Converse, Polaroid, Calvin Klein, Dr. Martens, Vans, Levis, Selfridges.

Tracklisting
Tokyo
Leonard Street
Recognise
World’s Worst Girlfriend
Richardson (ft. Cassandra Jenkins)
America
Online
I Wanna Be Loved By You Ringpull
If You Don’t Believe In Love (ft. Helado Negro)
Bad Kid (ft. Becca Mancari)