LIFE Announce Fourth Album 'ABSTRACT / NATURAL' With Lead Single The Dollywaggon
Tuesday, 17 February 2026
Written by Jon Stickler
Photo: Luke Hallett
LIFE have laid out plans for their fourth studio album.
Proudly independent, and embracing a DIY ethic rooted in community, the Hull four-piece will release 'ABSTRACT / NATURAL' on June 19 via Launchpad+ in partnership with EMI North, following up 2022's 'North East Coastal Town', and 2023's 'Our Love Is Growing' EP.
Produced by band member Stewart Baxter and Oliver Varga, and mastered by Stephen Kerrison, the album started as notes from a poetry book frontman Mez Sanders-Green had been writing, exploring folklore, nature, fatherhood and personal growth.
Recorded at the band's own studio in Hull, The Moon Factory, bandmates Baxter, Lydia Palmeira and Mick Sanders later wrote music around characters created from hills, ridges and landmarks — Hen Comb, Pavey Arc, Sergeant Man, The Grey Friar and The Dollywaggon — with James Kenosha handling the mix.
Described as their most ambitious and experimental album yet, it's previewed by the lead single, The Dollywaggon, an urgent post-punk track that blends sharp guitar tones with vivid, story-rich lyrics.
It was written while Sanders-Green was walking the 193-mile UK coast-to-coast route, from the West Coast, through the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales, across the moors and back home to the East Coast. He explained:
"The Dollywaggon's universal theme is about letting go and moving on - new adventures and beginnings. I wrote the lyrics whilst doing a long distance walk, turning what I saw into characters and scenes. I like to think it sounds like a pulpy Northern-based western - cryptic placards, farmers hanging dead moles on chicken wire, phallic mountains, pikes and ridges, Mother Earth always winning. The middle-8 feels like a salute to the new. In many ways, the track became the blueprint for the whole record."
Check out the song's video below, created by James Cooper and Luke Hallett, and produced by Hinterland Creative.
'ABSTRACT / NATURAL' tracklist:
1. Wild Grasses
2. The Dollywaggon
3. Turning In
4. Thistles Kiss
5. Mermaid Feet
6. My Yan
7. Drinking Games
8. Sun In Nancy
9. Buried Giant
10. Morning Fog
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