Yola announces new album 'Stand For Myself', shares music video of its first single

British singer and songwriter Yola recently announced the upcoming release of her new album 'Stand For Myself' and shared a music video for the album's first single, 'Diamond Studded Shoes'.

According to Variety, the four-time Grammy-nominated singer's new album will be out on July 30 and will again be produced by Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys, whose independent imprint, Easy Eye Sound, is Yola's label home.

Some familiar names, many of them from Nashville, co-wrote songs with the British singer for the new album, including Aaron Lee Tasjan, Natalie Hemby, Paul Overstreet, Ruby Amanfu, Liz Rose, John Bettis, Pat McLaughlin, Joy Oladokun, Hannah Vasanth and Bobby Wood.

This album announcement promises her second album will be marked by "a sonic shift from her debut album, with a diverse mix of symphonic soul and classic pop."

But anyone worried that she is completely abandoning the Americana vibe that characterised parts of her debut, should be reassured by the rootsy groove that "Diamond Studded Shoes" slides into. The colourful, Kwaku Otchere-directed video for the new song ensures it will not be placed in too narrow a shoebox, in any case.

The album was recorded in the fall of 2020 in a period when the pandemic delayed the filming of her role as Sister Rosetta Tharpe in Baz Luhrmann's Elvis Presley/Colonel Parker biopic.

Yola said in a statement, "It is a collection of stories of allyship, Black feminine strength through vulnerability, and loving connection from the sexual to the social, all celebrating a change in thinking and paradigm shift at their core."

"It is an album not blindly positive and it does not simply plead for everyone to come together. It instead explores ways that we need to stand for ourselves throughout our lives, what limits our connection as humans and declares that real change will come when we challenge our thinking and acknowledge our true complexity," she added.

About the class-conscious lyrics, Yola said, "This song explores the false divides created to distract us from those few who are in charge of the majority of the world's wealth and use the 'divide and conquer' tactic to keep it. This song calls on us to unite and turn our focus to those with a stranglehold on humty."

Stating that the video is in part inspired by 'The Truman Show' and is about being trapped in a false construct, she said: "It is supposedly perfect, but you are trapped in a life that was not meant for you. I wanted to convey the feeling that everything you know to be true is not quite working the way it is supposed to. The island at the end is a paradigm of mental conditioning, we are all trapped on an island of our own thinking until we change it."

Besides being nominated for best new artist at the 2019 Grammys, Yola was also up for best American roots song and roots performance for "Faraway Look" and best Americana album for "Walk Through Fire."

Meanwhile, for those who have been wondering about the not-yet-announced line-ups for the limited-capacity Newport Folk Festival and Newport Jazz Festival that were recently revealed to be in the planning for July, as per Variety, Yola has provided a bit of a head start, saying that she will be appearing at both of them.

( With inputs from ANI )