The Ninth Wave announce new album ‘Heavy Like A Headache’

The Ninth Wave have shared details of their new album ‘Heavy Like A Headache’.

The Glasgow-based band have announced plans to follow up their 2019 debut ‘Infancy’ - and their more recent Faris Badwan-produced ‘Happy Days!’ EP - with their new record, due for release on 11th March 2022 via Distiller Records.

The fifteen-track album was produced by the band before being mixed by Max Heyes (Massive Attack, Primal Scream). Today they’ve also shared a new track from it, ‘What Makes You A Man’.

Speaking on the release, the band’s Millie Kidd said: “‘What Makes You A Man’ is as claustrophobic as it is cathartic. It’s a journey of self deprecation, and how one event can be such a throwaway meaningless action for one half but be life changing for the other. I don’t want to blame myself for the degrading actions of others anymore - I want to stand up to this shame I hold with me, and recognise that it is not mine, I’m just the one carrying it.

“It’s a hard one to swallow, but it’s a situation most of the women I know have been in. To be a ‘man’, do you have to dominate? To face your own mistakes, to look at yourself and admit that you were wrong - does that make you more of a man? So what does that make me?

“We wanted to the put the listener into the scene of the song - everything is falling over itself, nothing is really in the right place at the right time. It’s sleazy, it sticks your shoes to the ground like the floor of a grimy club, it’s lonely but it’s too much all at once. From the noise saxophone to the endless guitar & synth feedback, you get an idea of what the inside of my head sounds like - I wanted it to be an unfortunately relatable discomfort.”

Listen to ‘What Makes You A Man’ below, and check out the tracklisting for ‘Heavy Like A Headache’ underneath the player.