Rising pop star Emma Blackery has today announced the release of her highly anticipated debut album Villains, due out on August 31st through her own RWG Records label. The album is available for pre-order now via Emma’s webstore alongside limited edition red vinyl and special merchandise and bundles.
To celebrate the announcement Emma has released the video for her new single ‘Agenda’. The video finds Emma coming up against harsh art critics and breaking free from their constraints in a burst of neon and pastel colours.
‘Agenda’ is a sharp and sassy pop anthem celebrating self-confidence and saying goodbye to those who don’t appreciate you. Toby Scott (Little Mix, Girls Aloud, The Saturdays) has produced ‘Agenda’, and was also behind Emma’s recent single ‘Dirt’.
‘Dirt’ has had over 1.5 million streams and the video, featuring plenty of attitude, has almost hit that milestone too. The track received great support from Spotify who launched the single in the Top 20 of their New Music Friday playlist. The song also peaked at number 5 in the Spotify Viral Chart, holding a Top 10 position for over a week.
Both singles are taken from Emma’s forthcoming debut album Villains, a record inspired by a period of reflection and one that invites listeners on Emma’s journey from, as she explains, “feeling so paranoid that I risked becoming a person I didn’t like, to letting go of all of that hurt”.
The atmospheric album opener ‘Villains Pt. 1’ sees her declare, “I am a nightmare… designed to destroy” over a beat that drips with menace. Elsewhere, ‘Petty’ (“You used to call me pretty, then you took out the “r””) flirts with tropical house, and her restrained vocal on ballad ‘What I Felt With You’ simmers with longing. By the album’s explosive closer, ‘Villains Pt. 2’, Emma is forced to consider her own part in her downfall, asking, “Am I kidding myself, blaming somebody else, I’m my own biggest villain.” On creating the album Emma says, “Writing the album was so cathartic. Music is my therapy.”
VILLAINS TRACK LISTING
Villains Pt.1
Dirt
Agenda
Fake Friends
Icarus
Take Me Out
Petty
Third Eye
What I Felt With You
Burn The Witch
Villains Pt. 2
In support of the album’s release the Essex-born singer will be touring the UK and Europe extensively, which will finish with a headline show at London’s KOKO on October 25th. Full headline tour dates can be found below:
UK/EUROPE HEADLINE TOUR OCTOBER 2018
4th – Parkteatret, Oslo
6th – Bar Brooklyn, Stockholm
7th – Beta, Copenhagen
9th – Sugar Factory, Amsterdam
10th – Nochstpeicher, Hamburg
12th – Musik & Freiden, Berlin
13th – B72, Vienna
14th – Feierwerk, Munich
16th – Luxor, Koln
17th – Zoom, Frankfurt
20th – Academy 2, Manchester
21st – O2 Institute 2, Birmingham
22nd – Garage, Glasgow
24th – Tramshed, Cardiff
25th – Koko, London
Tickets are available now through My Ticket.
