'Sadness Sets Me Free' is Gruff Rhys' eighth solo album and twenty fifth album of his career overall. Recorded over three days in Paris, it's an album filled with self reflection and criticism, all the while maintaining Rhys' signature wit and humor.
Gruff recently caught up with WUNC Music's Brian Burns before a show at Kings in Raleigh.
This is an excerpt of an edited transcript of that conversation. You can hear the full interview by clicking the LISTEN button at the top of this post.
Tell us about the journey this record took you on
I suppose I had this song ‘Sadness Sets Me Free’ that I was into, and I felt I could hang a lot of other songs around that title. I gave myself the sort of freedom to complain on this record which, you know, I don't always enjoy. I’m into the hopeful nature of music and how it can lift people and I think that's still the case. Working around this title I was able to include songs of complaints and political frustration and regrets and some sadness and put them together in one title.
'Sadness Sets Me Free' is out now on Rough Trade.
