Chicane shares cathartic new album ‘Everything We Had To Leave Behind’: Listen

Legendary British DJ and music producer Chicane is back on the release charts with an incredibly cathartic new album. ‘Everything We Had To Leave Behind’ is the artist’s eighth studio album, and is out now via Armada Music.

Born Nick Bracegirdle in Chalfont St. Giles, England, Chicane now boasts over 20 years of career and dedication to the finest dance music. His contribution to the history of trance music is heavy, always shaped by his own style and philosophy. His sound embodies the classic Balearic sound of Ibiza. Atmospheric, introspective, emotional and intimate. Chicane’s music is like a psychological journey inside ourselves and in man’s relationship with his equal and with what surrounds him. Bringing people together through music, regardless of age or creed. This is Chicane’s mission and it has gathered a huge number of fans on the dancefloor in the last decades.

This freshly released album follows a hit-filled discography that made waves on the British and American dance charts and in clubs all over the world. Pioneer and fearless, Chicane is not satisfied with being a tastemaker but always risks being a taste breaker as well. Throughout his prolific career he has shown himself to be very eclectic, having worked with many renowned names in the industry, across genres, such as Cher, Bryan Adams, Sir Tom Jones, Sigur Rós and Everything But the Girl, without forgetting emerging talents like Iceland band Vigri and Maltese vocalist Joseph Aquilina.

Not to get caught up in past mourning, but to move on and enjoy the future. This is one of Chicane’s messages in this ‘Everything We Had To Leave Behind’. Despite perfectly channelling the spiralling feelings that the global population has experienced over the last twelve months, the album began to be created before the pandemic took hold. Written and produced over the past year, ‘Everything We Had To Leave Behind’ encapsulates powerful messages of hope, isolation, reverence and reflection. This introspective creative exercise resulted in the exposure of Chicane’s classic sound and also the release of new and fresh musical concepts. The seventh track on the album is entitled ‘One Foot In The Past, One Foot In The Future‘, a title that illustrates this junction quite well. Presenting the album, Chicane said:

‘Everything We Had to Leave Behind’ didn’t have a title when I started making it. We didn’t have a pandemic, just. It was obvious but somewhat unreal as the substance of everyone’s life changed. Live shows went. That was very immediate and a shock to the system. Human interaction was reduced. I couldn’t not be affected by that, like everyone. I started working with Joseph Aquilina, with him singing in Maltese, a language I had no knowledge of but somehow seemed comforting. It was sound and uplifting, so uplifting became the direction for me once the title came. There had to be a positive against all the negative.

There is so much excess in parts of the world, so it was about leaving behind that excess and commercialism, about taking of stock of what we need instead of what we want. I’ve never wanted to come across as some preachy kind of person, but making the album made me realize everything we had to leave behind. It was a reset, a catharsis, for me, both musically and in my outlook on the future.”

The journey begins with the album’s title track, ‘Everything We Had To Leave Behind’, which is velvety sweet and huggy. This track features the stunning vocals of Maltese singer Joseph Aquilina, whose voice comes to the fore again later in the album on the single ‘1000 More Suns‘. Perhaps this is not a typical dance album, but a compilation of whispers that can only be heard if you let the music do the talking. This 14-chapter story also includes two beautiful treatments of songs by two renowned artists: ‘Sailing‘ by Christopher Cross and ‘8 (Cercle)‘ by Bon Iver.

Listen to this incredible new album by Chicane, able to accompany you from the moment you wake up to the craziest afterparties.

Tracklist:

1. We Had To Leave Behind (feat. Joseph Aquilina)
2. 8 (Circle)
3. Capricorn
4. Never Look Back
5. Sailing
6. Don’t Look Down
7. One Foot In The Past, One Foot In The Future
8. 1000 More Suns (feat. Joseph Aquilina)
9. Juno
10. Make You Stay
11. Now Or Never
12. An Ocean Apart
13. Make You Stay (Back Pedal Brakes Remix)
14. 14. Hello, Goodbye

Image credit: Chicane (via Facebook)