A CERTAIN RATIO have announced details of a new album, produced by Dan Carey, and
an extensive UK tour for spring 2024. It All Comes Down to This, their thirteenth studio
album, will be released via Mute on 19 April 2024. PRE-ORDER NOW
Listen to the exuberant call-to-arms that is the album’s opener, ‘All Comes Down to
This’, positive proof that the band have, once again, been able to tap into a new
artery of life.
The new album, due out almost exactly a year after their acclaimed release, 1982, is
further evidence of the mentality that defines A Certain Ratio, one that has always set
them apart from their peers – a dogged, relentless demand to evolve, re-assess and
reinvent with every new release. After the confident, sprawling, pan-genre strut of 1982
and a tour that celebrated 45 years of ACR performing live, comes this new record from
completely out of leftfield. The record’s ten tracks present ten distinct moods, every
bursting moment of it is defiantly, resiliently alive. It All Comes Down to This, for now at
least, is the sound of the current incarnation of A Certain Ratio. The purest distillation of
their essential sound ever committed to tape, and the first time they have recorded as just
the core trio of principle band members – multi-instrumentalists Jez Kerr, Martin Moscrop
and Donald Johnson.
“It’s the Ratio removing the safety net,” Kerr says, explaining the decision to strip away the
excess and return to the band’s base ingredients. “Every element of everything we’ve
done on this album has been a change.”
“It wasn’t a matter of rubbing everyone else out, it was, ‘let’s find the thing that makes us
work’,” adds Johnson. “And we know that’s just the three of us being as basic as possible
– no frills, no major overdubs. Just visceral and happening in the moment.”
The other essential difference between It All Comes Down to This and its immediate
predecessors is the recording process: after already working together on a remix for Loco
Remezclada (2021), the band turned to the doyen of contemporary underground rock
producers, Dan Carey (Black Midi, Kae Tempest, Black Country New Road) to work on the
album. Known for his rejection of sonic clutter and his uncompromising focus on the
central tenets of the bands and artists he produces, Carey’s instincts closely aligned with
ACR’s desire to return to the basics.
LIVE DATES
25 April – Huddersfield, The Parish
26 April – Leeds, Brudenell
27 April – Blackpool, Bootleg Social
28 April – Edinburgh, Summerhall
29 April – Aberdeen, The Tunnels
1 May – Norwich, Arts Centre
2 May – London, Fabric
3 May – Bedford, Esquires
4 May – Portsmouth, Wedgewood Rooms
5 May – Brighton, Concorde 2
9 May – Birmingham, Castle & Falcon
10 May – Hull, Social
11 May – Sheffield, Foundry
12 May – Bristol, Exchange
17 May – Manchester, New Century Hall
