“Someone’s always breaking my heat / Ride on through, on those tall black horses”, Jesse Malin sings on the latest song from Sad and Beautiful World, his new double album out September 24 (Wicked Cool Records). The gleaming, elegant “Tall Black Horses” is a metaphor on “taking your worst fears and insecurities and owning them, conquering them, without fear and regret”. He adds “Everybody gets hurt. Everybody gets their heart broken. It’s part of their journey. Ride on.”
Hear “Tall Black Horses” and the previously released “State of the Art”. Sad and Beautiful World is available for pre-order here and the expanded vinyl edition of the album includes three bonus songs. Jesse and his band will be touring throughout 2021, including nine UK dates, commencing at Glasgow’s King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut on Monday, September 27 and including London’s Garage on Friday, October 8.
“My music has always been about rebirth and redemption” says Malin, who wrote and recorded the album in 2020 and 2021 to help get him through the chaos outside his apartment in New York City. “This album is for those who pick up the pieces and find beauty in the madness”
The follow up to 2019’s Sunset Kids, Malin’s acclaimed album produced by Lucinda Wiliams and Tom Overby, Sad and Beautiful World takes its title from a line of dialogue in Jim Jarmusch’s 1986 cult-classic film Down By Law. A lyric in the song “Almost Criminal” gives the double record its theme: Roots Rock Radicals, Malin’s take on a phrase from the intersection of punk and reggae back in the day.
The “Roots Rock” side leans to the sad-eyed ballads, while its companion, the “Radicals” side, roughs things up a bit. But not everything is as black and white as the movies. All of Sad and Beautiful World is both tough and tender, laced through with vividly drawn characters striving against circumstance and a raw emotional tenor. The 17 songs served up here will break your heart, move your hips, and keep the lights shining.
Throughout 2020, Malin created and produced the celebrated weekly livestream series The Fine Art of Self Distancing to keep people connected worldwide and dancing on their couches. The show raised money for independent national venues, his band, crew and the Joe Strummer Foundation, and was named one of the best of the year by Entertainment Weekly and Rolling Stone.
“When I was a kid in Queens, my mother had a sign over the kitchen sink with a flower or something, that said ‘today is the first day of the rest of your life.’ I still feel that way. Growing up here, you find a way to carry your dreams up from the street and out to the stars. I try hard to keep my sense of humour, community and always find a way to dance through the flames.”
UK Live Dates:
Monday, September 27 Glasgow King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut
Tuesday, September 28 Newcastle The Cluny & The Cluny 2
Wednesday, September 29 Manchester Night & Day Café
Thursday, September 30 Leeds Belgrave Music Hall
Saturday, October 2 Leek The Maude
Tuesday, October 5 Bristol The Fleece
Wednesday, October 6 Leicester The Musician
Thursday, October 7 Nottingham Metronome
Friday, October 8 London The Garage