In 2019, the Manchester dance-music deconstructionist Andy Stott released an EP called It Should Be Us. That was his first new music in a while, and when he announced it, he also promised that he’d release a new album in 2020. That didn’t happen. Stott hasn’t put out a full-length since 2016’s Too Many Voices. Today, though, Stott has announced that he’s got a new LP finished and that it will arrive in less than a month.

Stott’s new album Never The Right Time isn’t the album that he was planning to release last year. According to a press release, Stott had a lot going on early last year — “a new album almost done and an offer to produce for a completely mainstream artist on the table” — when “personal upheaval” sidelined him. Stott went to work on a melancholy new set of music, and that’s what we’re about to hear.

Stott’s new single “The Beginning” definitely fits the bill. It’s a bleary, dazed club track with vocals from Alison Skidmore, Stott’s former piano teacher and frequent collaborator. Below, check out the new track and the Never The Right Time tracklist.

TRACKLIST:

01 “Away Not Gone”
02 “Never The Right Time”
03 “Repetitive Strain”
04 “Don’t Know How”
05 “When It Hits”
06 “The Beginning”
07 “Answers”
08 “Dove Stone”
09 “Hard To Tell”

Never The Right Time is out 4/16 on Modern Love. I want to know who that “completely mainstream artist” was.