Tim Burgess - I Love The New Sky (LP) - Transparent Splatter Vinyl

Released in May 2020 on Bella Union, I Love The New Sky feels like a burst of sunlight from Tim Burgess at the exact moment we needed it. The Charlatans frontman had already turned into a kind of community ringmaster with his Twitter Listening Parties during lockdown, but this record showed there was more than hosting flair in the tank. It’s bright, melodic pop threaded with a curious streak, and it works because Burgess sounds unguarded and genuinely excited by his own songs. He’s said this is the first time he wrote everything himself, words and music, and you can hear the freedom. The album plays like someone rediscovering the thrill of building a tune from the ground up.

The hooks arrive quick and stick around. Only Took A Year is as breezy as its title suggests, with a skip in the rhythm and a vocal that lifts at just the right moment. It has that classic Burgess mix of sweetness and wryness, a tune you can hum on the tram then realise later carries a little bite. The Warhol Me leans into a pop-art pulse, cool and slightly wonky, the kind of motorik-adjacent shuffle that nods to his crate-digger taste without getting lost in cleverness. Even when the songs float off into dreamy territory, they keep a clean line you can follow. He’s always had an ear for a chorus, but here he’s confident enough to let choruses arrive late, or bend into unexpected harmonies, and it pays off.

Part of the charm is how handmade it feels. These songs shine, yet they never sound airbrushed. You can hear the edges, the backing vocals stacked like postcards, synths that glimmer rather than dominate, guitar figures that jangle and then dart away. Burgess has spent a lifetime around studios and it shows in the details, but he resists making a museum piece. There’s a lightness that keeps things moving, a sense that he’s following the feeling rather than trying to build an era-defining statement. That restraint turns out to be a strength.

Context matters with this record too. In 2020, Burgess became a kind of patron saint of music fandom with those listening parties. I Love The New Sky slotted into that moment of communal discovery. It’s the rare solo album that invites you in rather than drawing the curtains for a confessional. You hear it in the buoyant tempos, in the lyrics that tilt toward wonder rather than gloom. Even the melancholy carries a gentle lift, the sort that makes you ring a mate rather than sink into the couch. That spirit is why the album kept finding new ears months after release.

Critics clocked it quickly. The Guardian and NME both gave it four stars, praising the open-hearted writing and the creativity in the arrangements. It wasn’t just polite applause for a veteran either. The songs earned it. If you’ve followed Burgess through The Charlatans, you’ll recognise the DNA, but these tracks feel less tied to Britpop memory and more in conversation with classic pop eccentricity, from late Beatles sparkle to lightly psychedelic chamber pop. It’s a clever balance, familiar enough to pull you close, playful enough to keep you guessing.

On vinyl the album’s colour really lands. The spacious mixes breathe, the bass sits warm, and those airy harmonies bloom in a way that rewards turning the volume up a notch. If you’re hunting for Tim Burgess vinyl, this is one that justifies shelf space, and there’s a tidy thrill in dropping the needle and letting Side A roll. I Love The New Sky vinyl has become a bit of a staff favourite around my local Melbourne record store for that reason. It’s the sort of record you spin on a Sunday and then again on a Wednesday night, and it behaves differently each time.

If you prefer to buy Tim Burgess records online, you’ll find this popping up alongside other Tim Burgess albums on vinyl, and it’s a safe recommendation for anyone who came in via the listening parties or the back catalogue. For collectors in vinyl records Australia circles, it sits comfortably next to your Charlatans reissues without feeling like a side note. It’s a good companion to a shelf that values songs over hype, curiosity over nostalgia.

More than a bright spot in a strange year, I Love The New Sky feels like a reset. Burgess sounds present, playful and open to possibility. That spirit makes the album easy to love now, and even easier to return to later, which is the quiet test any record worth keeping tends to pass.