It's been six years since Cast last released a new album, but for those fans who've been champing at the bit since 2017's Kicking Up the Dust for something new from the hook-happy Liverpudlians, that time is almost here: the band has announced the impending release of a new single, one which will be followed by a new album early next year.
The single in question, “Love is the Call,” is the title track of that aforementioned album, and per John Power, “It’s a psychedelic pop song, full of bouncing rhythms with soaring melodies and harmonies. It’s a cosmic call to arms, for Love is the Call… Calling… Calling."
Per the press release, the forthcoming Love is the Call album was recorded in Granada, with Cast venturing forth to Youth’s studio, Space Mountain. It’s the band’s first time working with Youth, whose past Britpop credits include Shed Seven and The Verve. (Perhaps appropriately, Cast performed on bills with both of those bands at various points this past summer.)
As far as what fans can expect to hear with this new material, try to restrain your excitement, but the press release, Power implied that Love is the Call “will feel like a missing link between his time with The La’s and Cast’s first breakthrough with their debut album, All Change.”
Oh, did we neglect to mention that? Yes, for those of you who might never have put 2+2 together, Cast's John Power is indeed the same John Power who can be found credited on the self-titled album by The La's. Although he wasn't a founding member of the band, he joined in 1986, which means that he was there when the band released their debut single, "Way Out," and he stuck around until December 1991, when he left, basically to just do something other than what he had been doing.
As Power explained in an interview with Select, "I'd been playing the same f***ing songs for six-and-a-half years and I said to myself, 'I'm not playing them again.' I had three new songs that I thought were good and I felt if I didn't try them, then no one would ever know. I'd just be f***in' bitter for the rest of my life."
In addition to his work with Cast, Power has also quietly created a solo career for himself, and although he hasn't actually released a proper album under his own name since 2008's Stormbreaker, he's actually on a solo tour at this very moment, performing a mixture of solo songs, Cast tunes, and whatever else strikes his fancy.
If you'd like to play catch-up on Cast and get a feel for what their back catalog sounds like, you're in luck: Q has put together a Spotify playlist which will take you from their debut album all the way up to the new single.
