Natalie McCool Releases New Album ‘Good For The Soul’

New Album ‘Good For The Soul’ Is Out Now
Listen Here / Buy Here

Includes The Focus Track ‘Sleeping Beauty’ Featuring She Drew The Gun

Record Store Tour Starts on Friday – Album Launch Shows Follow Next Month

After earning a new wave of acclaim following the singles ‘Coming of Age’, ‘We’re The Ones’, ‘So Lonely, Lonely’ and ‘I Fantasise’, Natalie McCool today releases her new album ‘Good For The Soul’. It’s a boundary-breaking, genre- bending record in a lot of ways, but at the root is her never-changing, unique flavour of alternative pop. Listen HERE / Buy HERE.

‘Good For The Soul’ is a sonic journey which travels from the more playful, pop-focused of its opening half, before going moodier, darker and tripper throughout its second section. Yet its diversity is unified by Natalie’s confidence in experimentation, as well as her new-found passion for collaboration – both of which brings a colourful flair to the record.

Natalie says, “The album is called ‘Good For The Soul’ because it explores the hope, joy and exhilaration of adulthood, and the way every experience makes you who you are – even the bad ones. There’s something for everyone on this album. It really is good for the soul! I used to think you had to fit into a particular box as an artist. And in a lot of ways you do. But one of the joys of it is breaking the cage and doing something a bit different.”

A prime example of that liberated attitude is the new focus track ‘Sleeping Beauty’, which is a key moment of the album’s darker second-half. Coercing Natalie’s alt-pop heart into the middle-ground between haunting trip-hop and the more haunting, atmospheric side of industrial, it features vocals from Louisa Roach of She Drew The Gun. 

Natalie adds, “‘Sleeping Beauty’ is an absolute wonky gem of a track and I love it so much. The melodies, the strings, the breaks, everything. The key is not what you think it is. It’s actually in E major but sounds like it’s in a completely different key. Musically, it trips you up. It’s disorientating in a very addictive way.

I knew from the moment we’d written the track that it had to feature She Drew The Gun. Me and Louisa go way back in the Liverpool scene and I think her songwriting and the way she delivers a vocal is glorious. The part she wrote, recorded and sent over just floored us.”

The rest of the album’s new material makes a similarly instant impression, such as the insistent rhythmic strings on ‘Nobody Knows’ or the way ‘Stuck On Repeat (Everytime)’ soars skybound from its initial intimacy. The title track uses dramatic larger-than-life beats and off-kilter synths to inspire unrestrained optimism, countered by the harsh intensity of ‘Suffering’(featuring ilā, who also appears on ‘Coming of Age’ as part of Trans Voices). Ultimately it’s a record big on empathy, something that’s captured on the redemptive closer ‘Into A Diamond’ which features Ukrainian electronica duo KRAPKA;Koma.

The album’s ambition and collaborative streak was inspired by Natalie co-curating and performing a special show as part ofLiverpool’s Eurovision Cultural Festival during the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest. It was there that she worked with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, who feature on several tracks on this record – its myriad features a natural extension from working with so many guests for the show. Her vision was also fully realised by producing and mixing the majority of the record for the first time. 

Physical copies of ‘Good For The Soul’ are available to buy HERE. There is a limited edition purple-and-torquoise vinyl and a CD, both of which are signed and are packaged with a badge and a guitar pick.

Natalie McCool will start an intimate record store tour in Manchester this Friday before playing special album launch shows in Liverpool and London next month. She is also confirmed to play an afternoon show with the beautiful setting of The Monastery in Manchester. Please see HERE for remaining tickets.

September – Record Store Tour

11th – Manchester, Vinyl Resting Place 2pm

12th – Liverpool, Rough Trade 12 noon

26th – Newcastle, Beyond Vinyl 2pm

27th – Glasgow, Strip Joint Records 4pm

October – Album Launch Shows

9th – Liverpool, Kazimier Stockroom

10th – London, Sebright Arms

November

15th – Manchester, The Monastery

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