Andy returns with his brilliant new solo album, Map of the World, on his own Free Pass Records on29th January. A record entirely written and mostly performed and beautifully sung by Burrows, the album – his first since 2019 – is 36 lovingly-crafted minutes of ELO-meets-The Beatles pop perfection, with contributions from Editors’ Tom Smith, Manic Street Preachers’ Nicky Wire, We Are Scientists’Keith Murray, Burrows’ little brother Ben, and Burrows’ littlest daughter, Joni.
The first single from the LP, “Nothing Matters Anyway”, is out on 22nd Sept. Short, sharp and bombasticand featuring the aforementioned Murray on guitar, it finds Burrows at his most exuberant, pairing glorious self-harmonies with a driving, Seventies-style arrangement and a lyric about liberation from the absurdity of seeking approval from others.“It’s supposed to be freeing, not negative,” says Burrows. “We spend so much time caring about what people think, especially with phones and social media. And then you realise: no one gives a shit!”
Map of the World is the work of a songwriter and musician whose career has continually resisted neat categorisation. Alongside his (now six) solo albums, Burrows’ CV stretches from Razorlight – with whom he remains drummer, vocalist and co-songwriter – to two albums with Editors’ Tom Smith as Smith & Burrows; collaborations with Matt Haig, Tom Odell, We Are Scientists and KT Tunstall; his role as Ricky Gervais’s go-to musical wingman (composing all the music for the comedian/writer/actor’s TV and film projects for the past decade-plus); his BAFTA-nominated soundtrack for The Snowman and The Snowdog; and his recent score for the powerful boxing film, Heavyweight.
Recorded at his home studio in Gloucestershire, the album’s title comes from a lyric contained in a small cache of gold-lettered lyrics gifted to Burrows by Nicky Wire. Having been carefully crafted over the last seven years, it evidences both Andy’s expanding music palette and his ever-changing moods.
It opens with “Superstar”, a soaring pop song whose skyscraping chorus arrives barely half a minute in. Elsewhere, the shaker maker bop of “Dry Mud”, written with Joni, then aged four, during lockdown; “Seriously” reunites him with Tom Smith for another beautifully bruised duet; and “All That I Wanted and More” provides the album’s emotional centre, reflecting on ambition, achievement, expectation and the price attached to getting what you once dreamed of.
For all the musical worlds Andy Burrows has inhabited, Map of the World feels like a particularly personal statement: beautifully drafted rock’n’roll cartography to lead us to the heart of brightness.
Andy will play a trio of special hometown “An Evening With” shows at Mary’s Church, Twyford near Winchester on 4th / 5th / 6th February 2027. Andy will be donating a proportion of the proceeds to Naomi and Jack’s. This hospice providing care for seriously ill babies, children and young adults is a cause close to Andy’s heart, which he has supported for almost two decades. 33 percent of the artist’s net fee will be donated to Naomi and Jack’s.
