Today BMG release ‘Let Me Know’, the second single to be taken from Gilbert O’Sullivan’s twentieth studio album, Driven, out on 22nd July.
The accompanying video was mixed with an immersive 360 Reality Audio in mind and is available to hear on headphones. The full album will be available in 360 Reality Audio on day of release on Amazon Music Unlimited, Deezer and TIDAL. 360 Reality is an immersive music experience utilising Sony’s 360 Spatial Sound technology. This allows individual sounds to be placed in a 360 spherical sound field giving the listener a unique opportunity to enjoy some of their favourite songs like never before.
One of Driven’s instantly memorable standouts, ‘Let Me Know’ finds Gilbert in reflective mood on a song that recalls the first decade of his career, in which he resisted serious relationships for fear that it might have an effect on his songwriting. “But I also like the idea of having a song in which the guy says to the girl, if your heart’s not in it anymore, don’t worry about me. I’ll be ok.”
Watch the video for ‘Let Me Know’ – BELOW:
‘Let Me Know’ is taken from Gilbert’s new album Driven, which follows his acclaimed Ethan Johns-produced, self-titled 2018 album which was awarded 4-stars in MOJO magazine. The thirteen songs that comprise Driven reveal a songwriter whose ability to sniff out hitherto undiscovered sources of low-hanging melodic fruit is keener than ever. Produced by Andy Wright and recorded with a live band at the legendary RAK studios, the unexpected velocity at which the songs came together bears testament to the instant chemistry generated between O’Sullivan, Wright and a house band featuring Pat Murdoch (Beyonce, Simply Red, Chrissie Hynde), Rich Milner (Morcheeba, James Morrison) and Geoff Holdroyde (Take That, Big Linda).
The album features duets with Scottish singer-songwriter KT Tunstall on ‘Take Love’ and big fan and Simply Red frontman Mick Hucknall on ‘Let Bygones Be Bygones’. Gilbert’s extraordinary ability for exploring the human condition is exemplified on ‘Hey Man’; on ‘Body and Mind’, we’re presented an adhesively catchy audit of blessings which takes the form of an internal dialogue about its protagonist’s lifetime lover. More topical issues are explored in ‘You and Me Babe’, where Gilbert juxtaposes the things that make our lives meaningful against the turbulence of the world at large, with a subtle reference to climate change. Whilst, framed by an exquisitely tender string arrangement, ‘If Only Love Had Ears’ is, by any metric, one of the most beautiful songs to bear O’Sullivan’s name.
Reflective songs come in the form of the aforementioned ‘Let Me Know’ – and another instantly memorable standout on Driven – ‘Blue Anchor Bay’, which finds him reflecting upon simpler times, retreating to his teenage years in Swindon and the regular school trips which would see him and his friends head out to the Somerset beach immortalised in the song’s title.
At its core, Driven is an album that offers a nuanced portrait of man reaffirming his own values and sense of self in an increasingly chaotic world. Never a conventional songwriter, he perhaps conforms to the description of a British chansonnier, praised by none other than Lenny Kaye – rock scholar and guitarist with the Patti Smith Group – for “songs [that] are artfully constructed, lyrically original with a fine sense of filigree detail.” As with Paul McCartney and the young Harry Nilsson – two songwriters for whom he retains a huge fondness – Gilbert O’Sullivan’s reach extends beyond the parameters of rock’n’roll.
Driven tracklist:
Love Casualty
Blue Anchor Bay
Let Bygones Be Bygones (featuring Mick Hucknall)
Body and Mind
What Are You Waiting For
Let Me Know
Take Love (featuring KT Tunstall)
Back and Forth
If Only Love Had Ears
You Can’t Say I Didn’t Try
You and Me Babe
Hey Man
Don’t Get Under Each Other’s Skin
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