Oxford indie band Young Knives have announced the release of their sixth studio album, Landfill, due on January 24, 2025. The record will be their first in four years, following 2020’s Barbarians, and will be accompanied by an early 2025 UK headline tour. The tour will start in Southampton on January 28 and will conclude in Glasgow on February 8.
The Dartnall brothers, Henry and Thomas Dartnall, now form the core of the band. Young Knives initially gained recognition within the Oxford music scene, and their 2006 album Voices of Animals and Men earned them a Mercury Prize nomination. Landfill reflects a thematic shift, focusing on topics such as mortality, identity, and the transience, according to vocalist Henry Dartnall. The singer says the album “is about letting things go before they are taken from you, including the carefully curated images of ourselves. Embracing everything the world throws at you and not taking it to heart.”
And these themes are crystallised in the name of the lead single from the album, ‘Dissolution’, which the band launched alongside the album and tour announcement. The track takes inspiration from a quote in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy—“Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so”—and blends playful ideas with deeper philosophical undertones. As Dartnall tells Clash Magazine, “What an amazing way to present such a deep idea but also make it fun. I just wanted to experiment with doing our version of that.”
‘Dissolution’ was recorded live using an old tape machine, adding a rough, spontaneous energy to the song. The recording took place as the band was packing up their long-time studio, a process Dartnall described as feeling like “dismantling everything about our band and music.” This sense of transition is reflected in both the song’s lyrics and its raw production. The song explores the theme of ego dissolution, a concept drawn from Eastern religions and described in Joseph Campbell’s The Hero’s Journey. Dartnall notes the irony in performing rock music—an art form closely tied to ego—while singing about ego death.
“The idea of my big ego mouth shouting words about ego death is ridiculous,” he admits, “but that contradiction was kind of fun too,” he said.
In addition to the new music, Young Knives will be touring the UK to support Landfill. The tour begins on January 28 at Southampton’s Joiners and includes dates in major cities such as Bristol, London, Birmingham, and Manchester before concluding in Glasgow on February 8. Tickets for the tour will go on general sale on October 11, with a presale starting earlier in the week.
