JEREMY LOOPS
New Album
‘CRITICAL AS WATER’
Global Tour Continues
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‘Critical As Water’, the new album from Jeremy Loops is out now. The follow up to his critically acclaimed debut ‘Trading Change’– which won MTV Africa’s Alternative Album of the Year, and iTunes SA’s Album of the Year – is produced by Will Hicks (Ed Sheeran’s ‘Perfect’, Lilly Allen, Bastille), with additional production contributions by Jake Gosling (James Bay, The Libertines, Shawn Mendes).
Loops supports the new album release by continuing a tour he has been on which takes in three months in Europe, North America and Australasia, playing 27 shows across 10 countries, selling a total 30,000 tickets.
Critical As Water is led by the single ‘Waves’, a woozy summer anthem that’s garnered millions of streams since its recent release. Directed by vlogger Ben Brown, the video for ‘Waves’ was described by acclaimed filmmaker Casey Neistat as an ‘incredible music video’, with its visuals filmed in Mozambique where Jeremy is seen surfing crystal clear blue waters alongside whales in a tropical paradise.
The theme of water runs deep through the album. Where ‘Waves’ is breezy and light, ‘Underwater Blues’ speaks to the weightlessness of insomnia in a hyper-connected always-on world, rewarded only by the release of sleep – a sort of deep submergence.
More urgent still is the real water crisis in Cape Town, South Africa, Jeremy’s home town. On course to be the first major city in the world to run out of water, taps to homes were turned off on 22 April 2018, in an environmental crisis that sees the devastating effects of political mismanagement, unsustainable consumption, and rapidly changing climates coming to a heed. And so when these themes come up on songs like ‘Flash Floods’ and a hauntingly beautiful ballad called ‘Vultures’, a more terrifying or apt backdrop to the album’s release cannot be conceived.
Speaking on the music’s themes, Jeremy explains how the restorative power of water fueled the album: ‘I grew frustrated trying to force the music because I knew the album was due, but one night after an incredible surf, I got home, picked up my guitar, and wrote ‘Waves’. Coincidence or not, I became deliberate about scheduling time in the ocean as a means to writing the album and the songs just kept coming’ explains Loops. He concludes, saying that ‘it isn’t all doom and gloom. If anything, this is the most beautiful piece of music I’ve ever made and it’s warm and lush, but the joyful highs are tempered by the real urgency of the problems the world is facing. Times are always changing. We all have the innate ability to flow like water to adapt to it. I like that about life, and I especially like how that comes across on this album. It feels wonderfully rounded.’
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CRITICAL AS WATER
Tracklist:
1. Gold
2. Rather Have Me Dead
3. Vultures
4. Freak
5. Thieves
6. Waves
7. Underwater Blues
8. Flash Floods
9. Dreaming Again
10. The Shore (feat. Motheo Moleko)
11. Runaway Kids (feat. Motheo Moleko)
12. Let It Burn
13. Hues of the Fall
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GLOBAL TOUR DATES
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01/05 – USA, Chicago, IL – Schubas
03/05 – USA, Toronto, ON – Adelaide
04/05 – USA, Montreal, QC – Belmont
05/05 – USA, Boston, MA – Middle East
22/05 – Australia. Capitol, Perth
23/05 – Australia. Fowlers, Adelaide
24/05 – Australia. The Corner Hotel, Melbourne
26/05 – Australia. Factory, Sydney
28/05 – Australia. Zoo, Brisbane
30 /05 – New Zealand, Neck Of the Woods, Auckland
31/05 – New Zealand, San Fran, Wellington
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Jeremy Loops is a musician from Cape Town. He is also the co-founder of Greenpop, a tree-planting organisation that’s planted over 85,000 trees in Southern Africa since its inception. His debut album launched at No. 1 in his native South Africa, winning several awards along the way including MTV Africa’s Alternative Album of the Year’ and iTunes South Africa’s Album of the Year.
With his place as one of South Africa’s biggest artists firmly established, he leant on the power of his live show to break into Europe and North America, opening for Twenty One Pilots on the European leg of their Blurry Face Tour. Relentless touring garnered him a cult following in Europe like that in South Africa, and he soon headlined a sold out 30,000 ticket tour of his own across the United Kingdom and Europe. Trading Change has since had over 50 million track streams.
In Critical As Water, he looks to translate this cult following in Europe and Africa into a global movement.
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Connect with JEREMY LOOPS
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