Today, British singer-songwriter and producer Shura announces her long-awaited return with new album I Got Too Sad For My Friends, released on May 30, 2025 via Play It Again Sam, and shares the first single Recognise. It marks her first taste of music since 2019’s critically acclaimed album forevher.
Recognise is the linchpin between this album and Shura’s previous work, which contains the lesson learned over the last six years of uncertainty. It opens with a celestial whirl of synths and soft, almost will-o-the-wisp vocals, before bursting into an unexpected bloom of frenetic drums. Lyrically it plays with artistic identity and the selfishness of dreams (“All this time I've been dreaming / Is it selfish? I'm not sure”), before settling on the fact that life is unpredictable, and simply being alive is enough.
Shura says: “Arthur Russell sang 'being sad is not a crime' and yet somehow when I went through a period of despair in January I felt that the best course of action was to hide myself away from the world. I think Recognise is a song about coming out the other side of that feeling. Slowly coming to the understanding that everything is ok. And that ok - is good. That I can sit quietly, read a book, sip a coffee and deeply appreciate being here and everything that has happened and has yet to happen…”
The years since her last album forevher have been turbulent in ways both good and bad. Shura became a pro-streamer, played Baldur's Gate 3 (twice), and made the Love Lies Bleeding-influenced decision to become a muscle mommy. On the flipside, the pandemic forced her to abandon the forevher tour midway and knocked her sense of identity in the process. Music became too painful to listen to. Living in New York and separated from family, she began pre-grieving for her loved ones while having a very real health scare of her own. She was physically isolated from friends, and felt emotionally isolated by them in turn.
Though it’s an album rooted in themes of depression and loneliness, I Got Too Sad For My Friends is far from downcast, it’s an album that stays fully present in its feelings and plunges its fingers into the earth – even when it can be painful to do so. Produced by Luke Smith (Foals, Shygirl, Depeche Mode) and featuring collaborations with Cassandra Jenkins (in a full circle moment, more on this in the coming months…), Becca Mancari and Helado Negro, it retains Shura’s usual crystalline sound and precision while introducing a different kind of warmth and earthiness.
Pre-order the new album here: shura.ffm.to/igtsfmf.OPR