Jamie T has shared Tallahassee, the second song out of his sixth album, Ghosts (100 Days Of Morning), which Polydor puts out on 9 October. It follows the lead track 3310, and it is a considerably more uncomfortable listen.
The title and the backing both come from elsewhere. The song samples the Canadian songwriter Leif Vollebekk's 2017 track of the same name, a record Treays says has been a constant through hard personal times in his life, which is why he wanted it under this one.
What he raps over it is an audit of his own standing. "I'm half as good as I think I am," the verse runs, and twice as good as you think I am. From there he measures himself against other people: Lily Allen as the soundtrack to somebody's university years, Tracey Emin for the state of his bedroom, Paul Heaton, and Liam Howlett in 1991 driving round Romford in a Ferrari Testarossa. The passage ends with him deciding he is nothing like any of them and calling himself a plagiarist.
Treays wrote it in the very early morning of the day he played Finsbury Park. "The song is almost me trying and failing to give myself a pep talk in the mirror before the biggest show of my career," he said, adding that it is meant to be light-hearted. An atmospheric official video came with it.
The album behind it was assembled out of voice memos spanning his whole career, and it is the first since 2022's The Theory Of Whatever. He told NME at Reading last month that going back through them helped him process a period he had never had time to think about, and that he now looks back on it more fondly than he did a few years ago. The record was announced in August for 9 October.
The gap was not an accident. After the 2023 Finsbury Park show he felt something had turned and that he was burnt out. His way back began with a small gig at London's Scala, his first performance in almost exactly two years, where he played an unreleased song called Waist 36 Leg 32, and continued with a surprise main-stage set at Reading.
A UK headline tour follows this winter, including two nights at London's Olympia. Tallahassee and the album are both on the release calendar, filed under indie.
The facts
- Jamie T has released the single Tallahassee.
- It previews his sixth album Ghosts (100 Days Of Morning), out 9 October on Polydor.
- The track samples Leif Vollebekk's 2017 song of the same name.
- The lyrics name Lily Allen, Tracey Emin, Paul Heaton and Liam Howlett.
- Jamie T, real name Jamie Treays, wrote it on the morning of his Finsbury Park show.
- He calls it a pep talk to himself that does not work.
- The album was built from voice memos spanning his career.
- A UK headline tour this winter includes two nights at London's Olympia.
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