Welsh musician Francis Allen writes music as Foreign Television. Officially entering the scene with Youthless in 2013, Allen has since built a reputation for his adventitious songwriting and atmospheric musical sensibilities. The Moscow-based singer-songwriter, who last released a self-titled full-length October last year, has most recently had his work licensed for Waking in June—and is now working tightly on a new album out anytime soon.
“Yeah Yeah” is the first single off of the yet-to-be-named LP. According to the one-man band, it is a song about “trying to find some kind of peace, and getting away from the things that hinder you.” Conceptually consonant with all of his music to date, the brand new number wallows in an impalpable rush of rawness that brings any pondering to a halt. As such, it is easily a peaceful prose on escapism.
Allen in “Yeah Yeah” succeeds in allowing thoughts to breathe, excreting a sense of freedom and, concurrently, acquiescence. With a texture reminiscent of Owen‘s, Foreign Television adeptly captures that sing-me-to-sleep kind of emotive serenading—only more reverb-laden. “Pretend we’re in a film/ I’m gonna breathe easily/ Voice low, oh no, I’m nobody/ Laugh at everything that’s never occurred to me/ When it all comes out wrong/ Yeah, yeah, you know what I mean,” Allen croons mid-song while an airy chorus of guitars float adrift above a dry, steady drumming.
“The song came about after I’d bought a new guitar and was playing around, seemingly aimlessly,” Allen wrote in an official statement. The song was written pre-pandemic in Wales and was recorded only recently in Moscow by the man himself. “I started playing the main guitar section and the vocal melody of the chorus somehow came with it,” he added, describing how he was able to finish it in just one sitting. “Some songs can take ages to get right, so it’s really satisfying when pretty much a full song flows out in a day.”
The “Yeah Yeah” release comes with an alternative version of Allen’s 2019 song “Heaven” and his cover of Alien Ant Farm’s “Movies”. Stream the tracks below.
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