Labi Siffre, the 80-year-old British folk musician, is back after spending decades out of the spotlight. He just announced his first new album in 28 years; the appropriately titled Unfinished Business is out later this year on Demon Music Group. He’s also shared the new song “Far Away,” a piano ballad that leans into Siffre’s soul influences, with a music video. Check it out below.
Siffre took a sporadic approach to releasing music over the years, dropping six albums in a five-year span during the ’70s, including his standout LP Crying Laughing Loving Lying, before retiring. However, he returned for brief stints in the ’80s and ’90s. His last records, the full-length album The Last Songs and the spoken-word poetry collection Monument, both came out in 1998.
Still, Siffre hasn’t been totally silent this decade: he released the single “(Love Is Love Is Love) Why Isn’t Love Enough?” in 2020, and the 2022 BBC documentary Labi Siffre: This Is My Song featured a version of “Far Away,” but the song was never officially released before today. What’s more, Siffre made a rare live appearance in the BBC Radio 2 Piano room to promote his upcoming album, tapping the BBC Radio Orchestra to accompany him for live renditions of “My Song,” “Far Away,” and a cover of the Four Tops’ “Baby I Need Your Loving.” Watch those clips below.
It seems the recent surge of renewed interest in Siffre’s music, including licensing syncs in films like The Holdovers and Sentimental Value, may be to thank for his big comeback. In 2024, official YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok channels were finally launched for Siffre’s music, as were new interviews and restored videos, as Stereogum points out. That following year, Demon Music Group released a Best Of collection gathering Siffre’s work.
Read Eric Torres’ Sunday Review of Siffre’s 1972 classic Crying Laughing Loving Lying and read about “It Must Be Love” in 50 Songs That Define the Last 50 Years of LGBTQ+ Pride.