Kelsey Lu returns with So Help Me God, a debut for Dirty Hit and follow-up to 2019’s Blood, due June 12. The chamber-pop album features Kim Gordon and Sampha among others, led by single “Running to Pain.”
Kelsey Lu’s So Help Me God arrives June 12 via Dirty Hit, marking the cellist, composer, and singer’s first full-length album since Blood in 2019. Co-produced by Lu alongside Jack Antonoff and Yves Rothman, the record includes contributions from Kim Gordon, Sampha, Kamasi Washington, and Lady Jess. The lead track, “Running to Pain,” offers a theatrical take on Lu’s chamber-pop style and comes with a video directed by Savanah Leaf, starring actor Garance Marillier from Titane. Album artwork and tracklist have also been shared. The full tracklist is: 01 Reaper, 02 Portrait of a Lady on Fire, 03 What Can I Do, 04 Running to Pain, 05 Comfort, 06 American Sonnet, 07 8 52, 08 Only the Lonely, 09 Better Than That, 10 Cutting Off the Head of a Ghost. In a press release, Lu stated: “So Help Me God was built slowly and intentionally across seven years of transformation. Sonically and emotionally it holds so many different worlds at once—devotion and desire, collapse and becoming—trying to make sense of what it means to break, to believe, to long for something without seeing it clearly, and to be reborn again and again and again.” Since Blood, Lu released the EP Blood Transfusion and collaborated with Jamie xx, Yves Tumor, and Boys Noize. Lu also composed scores for Netflix’s Daughters and A24’s Earth Mama. New material will be performed next month at Blue Note Jazz Clubs in New York and Los Angeles.
