Welsh multi-instrumentalist and producer The Anchoress — the recording name of Catherine Anne Davies — has announced her new album As We Once Were, alongside the release of its first single, “I Had a Baby Not A Lobotomy,” which is out now across digital platforms.
The track received its first airplay on BBC Radio 6 Music, where Davies also joined Steve Lamacq for an exclusive live interview on Monday evening. Speaking about the song, she said it was inspired by the absurd comments she encountered after becoming a mother, describing it as “a tongue in cheek litany of all the stupid things people said to me when I had a baby”.
Driven by vivid vintage synth textures, the single brings together shades of John Grant, Depeche Mode and the retro atmosphere of Stranger Things, while also featuring guest vocals from Mercury Prize-nominated Welsh-Cornish artist Gwenno. It offers the first glimpse of Davies’ third studio album, As We Once Were, which is due for release on 7 August via her new label home, Last Night From Glasgow.
Davies produced the album herself at Black Lodge and Townshend Studios, with mixing handled by Dave Eringa, known for his work with Manic Street Preachers and Idlewild. The material took shape over the past two years, as she began gathering ideas in the aftermath of her daughter’s birth, drawing on the past as a way of moving forward.
She has described the album as “a conversation across four generations of women”, shaped by two deeply personal experiences: the chance to work with Pete Townshend’s archive of vintage analogue synths in West London, and the experience of becoming a mother after repeated loss. A further emotional thread came with the discovery of her grandmother’s voice on a long-lost cassette found in her mother’s attic.
Reflecting on the record’s themes, Davies said the process felt like piecing herself back together through something close to kintsugi — the Japanese art of repair that finds value in cracks and imperfections. For her, that idea became central to the album’s meaning: accepting that while we cannot return to who we once were, healing can create something stronger and more valuable than before.
Alongside the album news, The Anchoress has also confirmed a special one-off launch show at London’s 100 Club, with an early 10pm curfew designed to be parent-friendly. Her previous album, The Art of Losing, reached the Top 40 and earned widespread acclaim, including end-of-year recognition from The Sunday Times, The Line of Best Fit, Mail on Sunday and Prog, while Elton John called it “one of my favourite records of the year.”
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