Public Service Broadcasting have announced a new LP, The Last Flight. The London-based group’s fifth album and first since 2021’s Bright Magic is due October 4 via their new label home, SO Recordings. Check out the new single ‘Electra’ below, and scroll down for the album cover and tracklist.
The Last Flight revolves around the final voyage of America’s pioneering female “aviatrix” Amelia Earhart, who was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. In 1937, she attempted to become the first woman to complete a circumnavigational flight of the globe in a Lockheed Model 10-E Electra airplane. She crossed the Americas, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, but disappeared near Howland Island in the central Pacific Ocean; nearly one year and six months later, Earhart was officially declared dead.
“I wanted to do a woman-focused story, because most of the archive we have access to is overwhelmingly male,” the band’s J. Willgoose Esq. explained in a statement. “I was initially drawn in by Earhart’s final fight, rather than the successes that she had, but the more I read the more I became fascinated by her. Her bravery and her aeronautical achievements were extraordinary, but her philosophy and the dignity that she had… she was an outstanding person.” He went on:
The final flight is the spine of the journey: the story jumps off at different points, and examines different facets of her personality, her relationship with her husband, her attitude to flying, her attitude to existing. She gave herself, I think, less than a 50% chance of survival when she flew the Atlantic alone. To put yourself, willingly, in those situations… I think it says something about that drive at the heart of humanity.
However The Last Flight isn’t doom-laden or covered in grief. There’s adventure, freedom, the joy of being alive. The reason why she wanted to fly was to find the beauty in living – ‘to know the reason why I’m alive, and to feel that every minute.’ The flight did fail, but she was right. Of all the people we’ve written about, I have the deepest respect and admiration for her.”
Speaking about ‘Electra’, J. Willgoose Esq. said: “The song is about Amelia Earhart’s plane, the marvellously named Electra. To match the name, the vibrancy and the excitement of the aircraft, the track is full of pulsing electronics and interlocking, percussive melody lines, plus pace.”
The Last Flight was tracked in the band’s southeast London studio, with strings by the London Contemporary Orchestra recorded in one day at The Church in north London. Guests on the record include Carl Broemel of My Morning Jacket on pedal steel, Andreya Casablanca and EERA, and This Is The Kit’s Kate Stables.
The Last Flight Cover Artwork:
The Last Flight Tracklist:
1. I Was Always Dreaming
2. Towards The Dawn
3. The Fun Of It [feat. Andreya Casablanca]
4. The South Atlantic [feat. This Is The Kit]
5. Electra
6. Arabian Flight
7. Monsoons
8. A Different Kind Of Love [feat. EERA]
9. Howland
