To celebrate the one-year anniversary of The Clientele’s I Am Not There Anymore, Merge Records is thrilled to announce the July 26 release of the band’s “Claire’s Not Real” b/w “Still Corridor” 7-inch. Previously released on green vinyl exclusively at their KOKO show in London earlier this year, the limited blue vinyl edition drops just in time for The Clientele’s brief tour of the United States, with stops in Philadelphia, New York City, and the Merge 35 festival. “Still Corridor” will release digitally on July 26. 

Ahead of the single’s release, Alasdair MacLean shed further light on “Claire’s Not Real,” as well as introducing “Still Corridor”:

“Claire's Not Real” was inspired partly by watching ash from the town of Ávila floating down into a place we were staying outside Madrid. I initially thought it was snow. There were a lot of big forest fires that summer.  The idea was to get the feel of some of our favourite bossa records, guitarists like Toquinho and Baden Powell. I think we ended up with something more London-y, though. We recorded “Still Corridor” very simply and didn't add any of the extra stuff we put on the other songs from the sessions. I didn't think it needed it. I was proud of the lyrics for this one. The chimes in the background were recorded from an old carriage clock Mark found.   

Pared down to the essential elements of The Clientele’s sound, “Still Corridor” is a stunning composition, homing in on MacLean’s delicate guitar-playing and revelatory lyricism. Released a year after I Am Not There Anymore, it reveals yet another facet of a uniquely generative period for the band.

Met with rave reviews and widely hailed as one of the best albums of 2023, I Am Not There Anymore was a leap forward for The Clientele, as influences that’d been flitting on prior albums left a more distinct thumbprint as the addition of a computer to their recording process allowed for more time and space to figure out time signatures and arrangements, places where their gorgeous chamber pop could meet post-bop jazz and contemporary classical and electronic music, or, as on “Claire’s Not Real,” bossa nova. 

Tickets for The Clientele’s UK and US dates are now on sale.

The Clientele on tour: 
Jul 11 London, UK – The Royal Albert Hall
Jul 27 Carrboro, NC – Cat’s Cradle (Merge 35) [SOLD OUT]
Jul 29 Philadelphia, PA – Johnny Brenda’s
Jul 30 New York, NY – Le Poisson Rouge
Nov 23 London, UK – Village Underground