Liam Bailey - Gold (Single)

Liam Bailey has announced his new studio album Shadow Town, arriving April 24, 2026, a quietly confident statement from one of Britain’s most distinctive and hard to pin down voices.

Written and recorded with long time collaborator Jimmy Hogarth, Shadow Town marks a return to the songwriter’s chair after years immersed in soundclash culture and reggae rooted collaborations. Recorded at Hogarth’s Hampstead home studio, the album is deliberately stripped back. Voice, lyric and atmosphere take precedence, with arrangements that leave room for texture rather than genre.

While Bailey has spent recent years at the heart of modern reggae and dub, including releases with Big Crown and appearances on Nightmares On Wax’s Echo45 Sound System, Shadow Town feels more like a reunion than a departure. Picking up where they left off on Bailey’s 2014 debut Definitely Now, he and Hogarth finally make the record they always intended. Pastoral soul shaded with British folk, gospel warmth and subtle reggae phrasing.

Tracks like “Northern Lights” and “Gold” foreground Bailey’s songwriting, while others quietly nod to his sound system lineage without letting it dominate. Contributions from Maverick Sabre and DRS underline Bailey’s ease moving between scenes, but the emotional centre of the record is his instinctive, free flowing creative process. Songs emerged through jams, freestyles and moments of pure intuition, a method that gives the album its sense of life and immediacy.

Born in Nottingham to Jamaican and English parents, Bailey has always resisted easy categorisation. From early support by Amy Winehouse to underground anthems and high profile collaborations, his career has followed instinct over momentum. Shadow Town brings that journey into focus. Restrained, reflective and unmistakably his own.

The album is released April 24, 2026, followed by a seven date UK tour, including shows in Nottingham, London and Manchester.