Mabel has today announced plans for second album About Last Night…, which will be released on Polydor Records on 15 July. The immersive project was teased last week with new track “Overthinking” (ft. 24kGoldn), and features euphoric first single “Let Them Know”, “Good Luck” & more to come. About Last Night…. follows the Brit Award winner’s debut album High Expectations, which saw Mabel’s catalogue surpass 4.5 billion streams, 8 million singles sold (and twelve top 20s) plus 2.5 million adjusted album sales.
With festivals this summer including Radio 1’s Big Weekend also kicking off, Mabel has announced plans for a special headline show at London’s Somerset House on July 17 to celebrate the launch of About Last Night…. Tickets are available now when pre-ordering the album, before pre-sale opens on May 31 and general sale begins on June 1.
Conceived by Mabel as the world went into lockdown – and completed as life IRL picks up pace – About Last Night… is a vivid and hyperreal journey from the anticipated beginnings to the messy end of the best night out that never was. Each track transports the minutiae– getting ready to go out; feeling invincible; clocking an ex; crying in the bathroom; stumbling home – and transforms the normality into the magical.
Throughout, Mabel once again switches up her effortless way with modern pop: influences span the liberated euphoria of noughties club-culture (dance-pop, house, translatlantic R&B) with deeper themes of expression and inclusion as gained from obsessively re-watching “Paris Is Burning”, “Pose” and “Drag Race” during lockdown. It’s this emotional space that (in Mabel’s own words) “brought her back to life” – here is a young woman processing her own, life-changing formative years growing up in the public eye, and taking charge of her narrative through this fantastical space.
The feel-good blueprint of About Last Night… was conceived between Mabel’s West London home, Angelic studios in Oxford, and some of Los Angels’ most inspiring creative spaces (including the former hilltop residence of Frank Sinatra).
Early on in the process, Mabel began to assemble a collective of creatively aligned collaborators including friends and frequent songwriting partners Raye, MNEK, Kamille and Jax Jones. Impressed by his work with childhood hero Robyn on “Impact”, Mabel also teamed up with new faces like SG Lewis, before completing the project between lockdowns in the US with collaborators from pop’s top table: Stargate (Rihanna, Katy Perry), Tommy Brown (Ariana Grande, Victoria Monet), Jozzy (Beyoncé, Lil Nas X) and Aldae (Justin Bieber).
Mabel first teased what she had been working on with first single “Let Them Know” – an unapologetic anthem about dressing up with nowhere to go, and projecting confidence for anyone who needs it. “Good Luck” distilled influences of heartbreak and female solidarity into perfectly realised pop, before the darker side of About Last Night… was previewed on “Overthinking”: an escapist but unflinchingly honest snapshot of when nightlife meets social anxiety, and how to find your way back to yourself.
The Mabel of 2022 is a young woman living in full and self-actualized power, intent on making music that will empower anyone who needs it. About Last Night… focuses on the tiny, fleeting choices that constitute a big night out – but also those decisions that can be truly life-changing. Here is a record essentially about learning to live for the moment, and the hard-won wisdom that whatever there is to say About Last Night… can wait until tomorrow, when the sun will come up again.