Cate Le Bon has always been an artist of exquisite control, her music a marvel of sharp angles and intellectual cool. But on her forthcoming seventh album, Michelangelo Dying (September 26th Via Mexican Summer), the facade cracks to reveal a throbbing, all-consuming heartache. The lead single and video, “Heaven Is No Feeling,” is our first glimpse into this new, rawer territory. Here, the Welsh songwriter finds herself overwhelmed by pure emotion, abandoning a planned record to instead document a love affair’s painful dissolution.
The track unfolds with a deceptive gentleness, Le Bon’s voice a fragile anchor in a sea of shimmering, off-kilter instrumentation. Her lyrics, however, cut to the bone as she trades her signature cerebral detachment for raw, visceral emotion: “I see you watch me work for your slow hand / Draping my body with no rhythm just desire / The day / The night / It all ends / And you smoke our love / Like you’ve never known violence.” The accompanying H. Hawkline-directed video mirrors this sentiment, a surreal and self-referential loop that captures the disorienting nature of grief.
H. Hawkliine shared: “There are moments in life you can’t make up, that seem unfathomable, then they happen. Life calls you on a banana phone and tells you her oldest joke, everybody crowds around and you try to remember the words to your favourite song. If you were to ask me how we made this video, I couldn’t tell you. Cate watching her, watching her watching Cate. I will always feel honoured to work with Cate in whatever shape or form, it’s easy to forget how remarkable someone is when you’ve known them forever. ‘I want you to make me a new video.’ ‘Have you watched the old one yet?’ ‘No’ …Bravo!’”
Recorded across multiple locations, from the Grecian island of Hydra to the Californian desert, Michelangelo Dying builds upon the sonic landscapes of 2019’s Reward and 2022’s Pompeii. Working alongside co-producer Samur Khouja, Le Bon pushes her sound into greener, silkier pastures, with Euan Hinshelwood’s saxophone acting as a secondary, wordless voice. There are echoes of Bowie’s art-rock and Nico’s stark vulnerability, yet the final product is singular to Le Bon. On Michelangelo Dying, she surrenders to the chaos of feeling, and in doing so, she may well have created her most devastatingly human work to date.
Le Bon also announces a late 2025 and early 2026 tour across Europe, the United Kingdom and North America. Tickets are on sale now.
Pre-Order Michelangelo Dying: https://catelebon.ffm.to/michelangelodying.opr
Cate Le Bon Tour Dates
Thu. Oct. 9 – Cardiff, UK @ Llais, Wales Millennium Centre
Fri. Oct. 10 – Manchester, UK @ New Century
Sat. Oct. 11 – Leeds, UK @ Howard Assembly Rooms
Mon. Oct. 13 – Glasgow, UK @ St. Luke’s
Tue. Oct. 14 – York, UK @ The Crescent
Wed. Oct. 15 – Gateshead, UK @ Glasshouse
Fri. Oct. 17 – Brighton, UK @ Chalk
Thu. Nov. 6 – Madrid, ES @ Mon
Fri. Nov. 7 – Barcelona, ES @ Paral·lel 62
Sun. Nov. 9 – Brussels, BE @ Botanique
Mon. Nov. 10 – Amsterdam, NL @ Melkweg
Wed. Nov. 12 -Berlin, DE @ Säälchen
Thu. Nov. 13 – Hamburg, DE @ Nochtspeicher
Fri. Nov. 14 – Cologne, DE @ Gebäude 9
Sun Nov. 16 – Paris, FR @ Cabaret Sauvage
Tue. Nov. 18 – London, UK @ Barbican
Mon. Jan. 12 – Washington, DC @ The Howard Theatre
Tue. Jan. 13 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
Thu. Jan. 15 – Boston, MA @ The Sinclair
Fri. Jan. 16 – New York, NY @ Irving Plaza
Sat. Jan. 17 – Hudson, NY @ Basilica Hudson
Mon. Jan. 19 – Montréal, QC @ Le National
Tue. Jan. 20 – Toronto, ON @ The Great Hall
Thu. Jan. 22 – Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall
Fri. Jan. 23 – Milwaukee, WI @ Vivarium
Sat. Jan. 24 – Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line
Tue. Jan. 27 – Seattle, WA @ Neptune Theatre
Wed. Jan. 28 – Portland, OR @ Revolution Hall
Fri. Jan. 30 – San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore
Sat. Jan. 31 – Los Angeles, CA @The Belasco