MF Tomlinson

Today MF Tomlinson reveals new single 'I'm On The Border', the latest glimpse of new album 'Die To Wake Up From A Dream', out 11th July on PRAH Recordings. 

A reflection on Tomlinson’s real-life experience of facing potential deportation from the UK, 'I'm On The Border' transforms that anxiety into something poetic and transcendent. Built around piano, strings and synth bass, the arrangement unfolds with cinematic grace. We hear strings, waves recorded at Chesil Beach, electronic timpani and a Beach Boys-style drum track processed to sound like a battlefield; with the beauty and chaos evoking fragility and defiance at once.

What begins as a meditation on borders - political, emotional, existential - becomes something more: symbolic brushes with death, a mourning for those in far darker situations, a resolve of belief in human connection. “How could they tear us apart? / The answer is they can’t,” he sings, delivering the line with quiet conviction. The result is a song that’s both intimate and immensely powerful, drawing inspiration from artists like Yo La Tengo, Tindersticks, Nick Cave and Cat Power.

Speaking more on the song, Tomlinson shared:

"I began writing this song in 2014 during one of the worst periods of my life, when I was fighting to earn the rights to continue to live in the UK. Lyrically, the song is purely about my personal experience, but as the recording progressed, I began to channel the incredible sadness I was feeling about the conflict that surrounds us into the arrangement.

The experiences I’m describing in this song shone a light on how hidden, often invisible, the injustice of how our borders are controlled really was to so many around me. My case is the best case example - the tip of the iceberg. I’m one of the lucky people who have been successful in gaining citizenship, for many it is impossible. I would love it if this could be a window into just how emotionally devastating these systems can be, to keep those who are in real peril closer in mind, to resist those who want to make our world smaller, and to remember just how lucky we are."
 

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'Die To Wake Up From A Dream' is MF Tomlinson's third studio album, and marks the final chapter in a trilogy of self-produced full lengths, following the critically acclaimed 2021 debut 'Strange Time' and 2023's 'We Are Still Wild Horses', respectively drawing universal praise from Uncut, Mojo, The Times, The Arts Desk, Record Collector, The Line of Best Fit, CLASH Magazine and many more.

An opus on human experience, new album 'Die To Wake Up From A Dream' is an urgent and vivid description of the times in which we live, fusing organic and electronic textures into a sonic tapestry that explores internal, external, and digital realms.

Encompassing folk, shoegaze, art-rock, prog and orchestral traditions, the new album was produced by Tomlinson in his studio in Poplar, London. Meticulously captured one instrument at a time, 'Die To Wake Up From A Dream' is a psychoacoustic odyssey of impossible proportions.

>From the grandeur of opener and previous single 'Blink And You'll Miss It', the liminal landscapes of instrumental tracks 'A Dream' and 'A Meadow (Part I)’ featuring Shovel Dance Collective’s Jacken Elswyth, and the stormy, tumultuous 'Your Flight (Dying/Another Dream)' featuring vocals by Dry Cleaning's Florence Shaw, the universe Tomlinson has created is hyper-real; the falling of a pin detectable in the midst of a raging storm at sea.

MF Tomlinson has shared two songs from the new album so far - its ambitious centrepiece and 9-minute title track, ‘Die To Wake Up From A Dream’, and the lush, expansive album opener 'Blink And You'll Miss It', receiving early plaudits from The Needle Drop, Rolling Stone, The Line of Best Fit, Rough Trade, and more.

MF Tomlinson's new album 'Die To Wake Up From A Dream' is out 11th July on PRAH Recordings and available to pre-order on vinyl here. New single 'I'm On The Border' is out now.

ABOUT MF TOMLINSON

London-based, Brisbane/Meanjin-born singer-songwriter MF Tomlinson made his debut with the release of his 'Last Days Of Rome' EP in 2020 and has since released two critically acclaimed full length albums, 2021's 'Strange Time' and its follow up and sister album 'We Are Still Wild Horses' in 2023 via PRAH Recordings. 

Merging together ambient, experimental jazz, acid-folk and indie folk to otherworldly new territory, 'We Are Still Wild Horses' received universal widespread acclaim upon its release from The Times, Mojo, Uncut, The Line Of Best Fit, Record Collector, Music OMH, The Arts Desk, Beats Per Minute, Gigwise, amongst many others.

Tomlinson's work has seen him traverse the globe, performing at festivals from Finland to Australia, and at the widely adored End of the Road Festival, not to mention support UK/EU tours with American heavyweights Geese and TORRES, alongside coveted support dates with Dry Cleaning, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, DeVotchKa, James Yorkston and Nina Persson - to name but a few.

 

PRAISE FOR MF TOMLINSON + WE ARE STILL WILD HORSES

"Offering variations on chamber rock with a solemn grandeur that simmers with tension"
Mojo (4/5)

"A literate, sensitive crooner of lugubrious yet meticulously arranged songs"
Uncut (8/10)

"An album you feel more in your gut than anywhere else...an opus on emotion"
Gigwise (9/10)

“We Are Still Wild Horses reveals Tomlinson as a rare thing today, a talented, depressive singer-songwriter with a sense of humour”
The Times (4/5)

"Amid wave upon wave of beautiful, orchestral arrangements, Tomlinson and his cast of players have created something very special indeed"
Record Collector

“Tomlinson is many things; a wordsmith, a commanding vocal presence, and a conductor of light and dark. But at his core, he is a deeply talented songwriter that can conjure emotion via the slightest movement"
The Line Of Best Fit (8/10)

"A work of delicate assurance that finds MF Tomlinson reaching towards unknowable truths"
Clash Magazine

"Gliding psych-rock... overflows with ideas – both musical and lyrical"
Beats Per Minute