Rock veterans Bell X1 have announced news today of their eighth studio album, Merciful Hour, due to drop May 26th, with 'Haint Blue', their new single out today. Recorded last year in Dublin, the ten-track record was produced by John ‘Spud’ Murphy. Having been in the works since 2018, this will be the group’s latest studio album since Arms in 2016.

The band’s frontman Paul Noonan discusses further, “'Haint Blue' was the first song that we worked on for this record, and brought us back into the orbit of the good ship Bell X1. Dave had been listening to a podcast about how porches in parts of the southern U.S. were painted this particular shade of blue to ward off ghosts, or Haints as they were called by the Gullah people in that part of the world. It led us to dream up a character of a more benign Haint, and an exploration of the surreal, a fever dream of yearning.”

“The song sets out a stall of sorts for the record - taking a central image or idea and stretching it beyond the corporeal, untethered,” he adds.

“Like a couple of the others, we got to play 'Haint Blue' live before recording and work with Dowry Strings in realising this idea of the spooky place, with the melodrama of the strings, the voices of a crowd.”

Noonan continues, explaining, “Ellius Grace came up with a video treatment that jumps on one of the possible narratives in the song - some kind of rupture in the relationship between a father and daughter, and his hallucinations, regret and yearning for what they had. All set in a spooky gaff...We’ve been fans of his work for some time now so it was great to have this story realised through his lens”.

The album is available to pre-order now and will include four tracks; ‘Haint Blue’, ‘The Lobster’, ‘Bridge and Tunnel’ and 'Light My Way' available from this Friday via iTunes.

Following a run of sold-out shows last summer, Bell X1 will return this summer for another series of gigs starting June 10th. Tickets are on sale now via Ticketmaster here.

Stream 'Haint Blue' below.