Daley Announces First Album in Nine Years, Strange Nature

Daley has revealed details about his long-awaited third album.

The British R&B singer has announced his new project, Strange Nature, will release Sept. 18 via Texx7 Records/SRG-ILS Group.

“Naming the album Strange Nature was an acknowledgment for me that life does not always unfold in ways we can predict, hope or expect,” said Daley. “Ideally, I wanted the title of my first album in some years to reflect growth, an internal flourishing, all of these positive, optimistic things. But in my soul, I knew that was only half of the reality of the process.”

He added, “Love, beauty and optimism often existed alongside uncertainty, self-doubt, sadness, and things I couldn’t control. The strange isn’t good or bad, it’s equal parts beautiful and ugly — and for me a weight is lifted by accepting that we are not always going to understand the nature of things, as long as we continue to learn and grow through them.”

Strange Nature will consist of 10 tracks, including the previously shared “Lavender” and “Side.” The album will also feature the Marsha Ambrosius-assisted “Headlights,” which dropped Friday (Sept. 4). The track marks their first collaboration since 2012’s “Alone Together,” a stellar ballad from Daley’s debut EP, Those Who Wait. The album also features instrumentation by musicians Robert Glasper, Keyon Harrold and Yussef Dayes.

Daley will support his new album on his headlining tour, which kicks off Sept. 16 in St. Louis. The 27-city U.S. tour will make stops in Chicago, Las Vegas, New York, Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles, before wrapping up later in the fall. Tickets are available at daley.tv.

Strange Nature will follow 2017’s The Spectrum, which included his Jill Scott-featured duet “Until The Pain Is Gone.”

Regarding the meaning behind The Spectrum, Daley told Rated R&B, “I was feeling like I should make an album with a certain sound. I was thinking I should do this kind of dark, spacey R&B thing. But when I started writing, it dawned on me that it doesn’t encompass everything that I am and what I do in my live shows,” he said. “I would be so limited by doing that, so I started to feel like it needed to be a range of things: the dark stuff, the feel-good R&B songs, and something that would translate really well live. In my head, the word ‘spectrum’ kept popping up in all different areas, so it’s my musical spectrum. It’s a range of what I do.”

Daley’s Strange Nature Album Tracklist

1. Lavender
2. Slide
3. Sleepless
4. Consequences (feat. Keyon Harrold & Yussef Dayes)
5. Falling Deep
6. Chemistry
7. Easy
8. Headlights (feat. Marsha Ambrosius)
9. Compass (feat. Robert Glasper)
10. Zone