Lowly Announce New Album “Softy” out 30th October via Bella Union
& Share Video For Album Title Track
Danish quintet Lowly are back with their fourth studio album, the organic and expansive Softy, due out 30th October via Bella Union and available to pre-order here. After their previous album, 2023’s Keep Up the Good Work, Nanna Schannong (vocals), Soffie Viemose (vocals), Kasper Staub (synthesizer), Thomas Lund (bass), and Steffen Lundtoft (drums) wanted to reconnect to the creative process that bound them together when they formed over a decade ago: namely, getting in a room together with their instruments and working out their ideas with only their talent and their esteem for one another guiding the way. The result is an album of deep emotionality, exploring themes of parenthood, family, love, and loss, while expanding on the dreampop sound that made their previous releases so popular throughout Europe.
Today, following the album’s first single “Liminal Space” Lowly share the album’s hypnotic and propulsive title track “Softy”. Once again Lowly reinvent themselves with a sonic mix of americana-ish guitars, airy 90’s-style vocals and a restless beat that layers itself throughout the song that slowly builds to become eminently danceable.
Already fixated on the first note the vocal harmonies come in, focusing on the lyrics and the weaving guitar notes that provide the immediate experimental texture to the creation. The beat plays next, and the instrumentation elevates the exploration to this dreamy level. Lowly have crafted this track deep with resonating hooks, melodic moments and this rich collection of tones and textures that chisel into the immersive structure.
Commenting on the track Lowly say: “Softy is an ode to our emotional core; how we build and train our emotions like any other muscle in our body; that our emotional muscles easily weaken and strengthen with our outward actions. And in this state of mind, the lyrics revolve around the thought that we, through relationships and parenthood, completely devour all emotion and love from our closest relations in order to maintain and build our emotional core. As the chorus hits, Nanna’s lyrics state that throughout this process of giving and taking, our emotional core needs to stay soft and forgiving: ‘If your layer’s too thin, just flow. If it’s ripping your skin, just flow. Let the rubbles within just flow’. At the same time you could say that the song is a love declaration of love; about needing a lot from a person who’s already on the limit of their capabilities.”
After more than a decade of performing and writing music together, Danish five-piece Lowly are back to where they started. Five musicians, playing in a room together, figuring out the most exciting way to channel their deepest emotions into song. The band don’t seem to have a leader per se, but instead operate as a unit, a collective, and it’s what makes their music so special. Each member brings their separate talent, and the result is more than the sum of its parts.
Across 10 sprawling tracks, the band tell a tale of modern life, weaving together stories of raising children, searching for togetherness, and finding courage in the face of an increasingly unstable world.
“When the world is going so crazy, bravery is more relevant than ever,” says Steffen. “Maybe that’s why we’re channelling these feelings on this particular album, because right now is the craziest time in all of our lives. We talked a lot about, what do we want to do? Why do we want to be a band under these circumstances? And if we’re going to be a band, then we should do it in a really, really caring and sustainable way. Let’s take responsibility for the process, and also be brave enough to put out an album that’s not overproduced.”
For the first time in their career, Lowly decided to self-produce their album, a choice that brought them even closer to fully realizing their impact. “On our last album, we worked with our producer, Anders Boll,” says Soffie. “He was the anchor, and we were working with him in turns. For a lot of the production the band members weren’t in the studio at the same time—I’m happy with the album, but it was sometimes kind of a detached experience..This time we just really wanted to be in a room together and play the music. We rented a house and recorded some songs, and we also recorded in the studio in Aarhus, so the experience was very focused on actually being together—which meant less fidgeting with sound, but much more human interaction.”
Of all their releases thus far, Softy feels the most like Lowly. Not just in the moods, in the lyrics, or even in the music—but in the fact that for more than 10 years, they have been working together as an organism of many parts, not symbiotic but interdependent of each individual’s contribution.. Softy is the sound of five people who don’t need words to communicate, and thus, have created a seamless listening experience made up of their biggest achievements and more vulnerable moments. Four albums in, and this is just the beginning.
Lowly Denmark live dates:
14.01.2027 — Posten, Odense
15.01.2027 — Bygningen, Vejle
16.01.2027 — Generator, Ringkøbing
22.01.2027 — Templet, Lyngby
23.01.2027 — Raschs Pakhuz, Rønne
28.01.2027 — Gnisten, Ry
29.01.2027 — Harders, Svendborg
30.01.2027 — Mejeriet, Sønderborg
05.02.2027 — Northern Winter Beat, Aalborg
06.02.2027 — VoxHall, Aarhus
11.02.2027 — Platform K, Horsens
12.02.2027 — Kulturloft, Ebeltoft
13.02.2027 — Store VEGA, Copenhagen
1. Brave
2. Liminal Space
3. What Is It For
4. Curious
5. Fighter
6. Stretch Under Strain
7. At All
8. Softy
9. Tilted
10. Xclouds
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