Ah, romance. The excitement, thrills and magical mysteries of love. “Whatever love means” as a very stupid man once very famously said. On the telly. In front of his fiancée.
Or was our current monarch not far wrong?
The quote could indeed be the inspiration for ‘Romance’ , the first single from Irish songwriter AS Fanning’s forthcoming album Take Me Back To Nowhere.
On the new song from the brooding Berlin-based baritone, he still reflects on the darker side of life but it’s affairs of the heart, relationships and emotional connections he turns his battle-scarred attentions to. With synths and a very certain sparseness, on ‘Romance’ the weight and power of his voice guides and shows us the way and explores a somewhat bleak view.
‘This is a disillusioned love song,‘ Fanning explains. ‘Representing a feeling of hopelessness through imagery of a barren physical landscape. There’s also some hint of room for hope or vulnerability in the line ‘love lets you in…’ but it’s generally quite a cynical song suggesting that romantic feelings are just a confused mixture of fear, need, and desire.‘
The single introduces broader themes that run throughout Take Me Back To Nowhere: inescapable isolation and the idea that our relationships are shaped more by our internal chaos than any genuine connection with others. ‘In some ways it touches on the wider themes of the album,’ he continues. ‘That everyone is isolated and that their own issues and interior processes are what’s informing their relationships with other people—that who you fall in love with is just based on your own particular cocktail of neuroses, which you somehow find reflected in another person.‘
The upcoming album represents Fanning’s deepest exploration yet of the internal world, influenced by his immersion in science fiction literature, particularly the works of Ursula K. Le Guin and J.G. Ballard during the writing process.
AS Fanning’s fourth studio album Take Me Back To Nowhere, is released on 6 February via K&F Records. The record comprises of the following songs, with ‘Romance’ on streaming platforms from today for your listening pleasure.
- Save Us
- Today Is For Forgetting
- Back To Nowhere (Part 1)
- Now I’m In Love
- Romance
- Idiot Leader
- Back To Nowhere (Part 2)
- Stay Alive
- Western Medicine
- Back To Nowhere (Part 3)
- Talking to Ourselves
- Epilogue
AS Fanning UK tour dates:
19 March Folklore Rooms, Brighton
20 March The Louisiana, Bristol
24 March Hug & Pint Glasgow
25 March The Talleyrand Manchester
26 March The Grace, London
Photo credit: Neil Hoare
