Fans of 90s alt.rock will be digging out their stripy t-shirts with joy following the announcement that Belly are to release a new album and hit the road next year. The new album will be their first full-length release since 1995’s King.
The band, formed by former Throwing Muses guitarist Tanya Donnelly after she left The Breeders, split in 1996 but reformed last year for a series of live dates. New material had been mooted at the time but the band has now officially confirmed it.
Writing on their website, Throwing Muses said: “We very much appreciate all the patience regarding the new Belly material we've now promised several times!
"We really have been busy writing and demo'ing new songs since the conclusion of the reunion tour last year, and we're happy to reveal that we’ll be going into the studio in just a couple of weeks with our old friend Paul Q. Kolderie working the knobs and faders. It is our hope that we’ll have a new Belly record ready for release sometime in 2018, and in the meantime we're laying the ground-work for some touring to coincide!"
Twenty-two years is quite the wait for a new album but Tanya Donnelly has always been a songwriter of distinction. Speaking to The Line Of Best Fit last year, she revealed that Belly had formed out of frustration when her Breeders cohort Kim Deal went on tour with Pixies.
She said: ““Everything that is on [Belly debut album] Star was intended for the next Breeders album. All the old reels I have in my basement of the demos are labeled The Breeders. The Pixies had announced a year long, worldwide tour and Kim signed on for that. I sort of got antsy, had already left the Muses and so I thought, I’m taking my songs and making my own band!”
