Paris-based soft-rock outfit This Is the Kit will kick off 2027 by releasing their follow-up to 2023’s Careful of Your Keepers LP with Ghost Coat, a guest-heavy record that still maintains band leader Kate Stables’ personal bent to lyric-writing. Alongside such luminaries as Ben Howard and Sam Amidon on the LP is British avant-folk icon Richard Dawson, who joins the collective on the project’s latest single “Safety Valve.” The guest vocals slot perfectly within the simmering cut, which otherwise serves to emphasize how comfortable the quintet sounds two decades into recording together.
“This is a song dedicated to friends who come to your rescue. A helping hand. Someone who listens and doesn’t judge. And getting out on your bike and feeling better,” Stables shares of “Safety Valve.” “Speaking of kind, non-judgemental people, I had been dreaming of asking Richard Dawson to sing on the new record and somehow managed to pluck up the courage to ask him to sing on this track. He graciously accepted the challenge and it immediately turned it into one of my favourite songs on the album. Absolute legend. Finest pipes in the business.”
Arriving alongside the single (which you can listen to here) is the track’s live debut. The first of a series of performance videos shot by Lemon Thief, the “Ghost Coat in the Washing Machine Live Session” clip for “Safety Valve” permits the listener an intimate look at the band’s tight synchronicity in a studio space as Stables steers the ship. Check it out below, pre-order Ghost Coat here before it drops on January 15 via Memphis Industries.
