Orlando Weeks Announces 'Loja' LP With First Single Dig Featuring Wet Leg's Rhian Teasdale

Photo: Kate Friend

Orlando Weeks has laid out plans for a new album.

The former leader of The Maccabees will release 'Loja' digitally on June 6, with physical formats following on August 23 via Fiction Records.

Written as Weeks relocated from London to Lisbon just after the COVID-19 pandemic, the record was primarily recorded in Chale Abbey Studios on the Isle Of Wight with producer Sergio Maschetzko and collaborator David Granshaw, with Nathan Jenkins joining later on for the finishing touches. Commenting on the LP, Weeks said:

"The great change in our lives was that we left London and moved to Lisbon, and the record definitely has elements of being a love letter to the place that we now call home. But I think the move provided a stirring of the waters. It threw up an awful lot of stuff and it gave us perspective and hindsight because suddenly there was distance. You can re-evaluate the things you were too close to, those things that there was no point spending time thinking about because it was the day-to-day bubble you were in."

As a preview, check out the record's first single, Dig, which is propelled by a driving beat that anchors tense he-said-she-said style vocals from Weeks and Rhian Teasdale of breakout indie band Wet Leg. Head below to view the song's accompanying black and white video, directed by Matt Harris-Freeth.

"Dig is a tit-for-tat exchange where long worn-out promises are remade and road weary offences retaken," Weeks added. "The kind of disagreement that manages to be somewhere between outpouring of emotion and exposed internal monologue."

'Loja' will mark Weeks' third solo full-length, following his 2020 debut 'A Quickening' and 2022's 'Hop Up'. Its release will coincide with the launch of a residency at The Copeland Gallery in London, running between June 6 and 9, where Weeks will exhibit artwork he made while living in Lisbon before a performance of the album. Head here for details.

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'Loja' tracklist:

1. Longing
2. Best Night
3. Wake Up
4. Dig [featuring Rhian Teasdale]
5. You & The Packhorse Blues
6. Good To See You
7. My Love Is (Daylight Saving)
8. Please Hold
9. Sorry
10. Tomorrow
11. Beautiful Place

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