The Twilight Sad Detail 1st Album in 7 Years ‘It’s The Long Goodbye’

The Twilight Sad confirmed their first studio album in seven years, It’s The Long Goodbye, arriving March 27 through Rock Actions Records. The Scottish post-punk band — consisting of core members James Graham and Andy MacFarlane — previewed the record with the single, “Designed To Lose.”

The follow up to 2019’s It Won/t Be Like This All the Time, It’s The Long Goodbye sees Graham reflecting on his mother’s illness and subsequent death as well as his own mental health. “It had to contain every element of emotion I was feeling,” the singer/lyricist said.

Following The Twilight Sad’s “pinch yourself” tour with The Cure in 2016, Graham returned home to find his mother had been diagnosed with early onset frontotemporal dementia. He wrote the lion’s share of It’s The Long Goodbye as he processed his mother’s decline but also the joy he found in marriage and parenthood.

In 2023, however, another Twilight Sad tour with The Cure had to be cut short due to Graham’s deteriorating mental health. “And then my mum passed away in the January afterwards,” James recalled.

Graham and MacFarlane crafted It’s The Long Goodbye over the course of seven years, with help from tourmate and The Cure frontman Robert Smith who contributed to the record. Smith added guitars/”Tron keys” on “Dead Flowers” and six-string bass on “Back To Fourteen.” He also played guitar on the previously-released Long Goodbye single “Waiting For The Phone Call.”

Additional contributors on the LP include Arab Strap‘s David Jeans and Mogwai touring member Alex Mackay. With Macfarlane handling primary production duties at London’s Battery Studios in Willesden, Andy Savours (My Bloody Valentine) also produced alongside mixing by Chris Coady (Slowdive).

It’s The Long Goodbye is a deeply relatable record, something James Graham is proud of.

“To know that I’m saying things that connect with other people, that’s such a powerful thing,” Graham stated. “I want to be a relatable person that talks about things that can happen and give an opportunity for people to go, well, you’re not alone. I want people to be able to listen to this record and hear that it comes from a place of raw emotion. The album is an opportunity to share my experience and move forward with my life.”

Preview It’s The Long Goodbye with the video for “Designed To Lose” created by Casey Raymond and DLT below:

It’s The Long Goodbye Tracklist:

1. Get Away from It All
2. Designed to Lose
3. Attempt a Crash Landing – Theme
4. Waiting for the Phone Call
5. The Ceiling Underground
6. Dead Flowers
7. Inhospitable/Hospital
8. Chest Wound to the Chest
9. Back to Fourteen
10. TV People Still Throwing TVs at People