London-based quartet Whitelands are gearing up for their opening slot on Slowdive’s UK tour next month. Today, they announced their debut album Night-bound Eyes Are Blind To The Day and shared the single “Tell Me About It,” which has guest vocals from Dottie of fellow UK dream pop act deary.

“It’s about being lost with the aspect of love,” vocalist and guitarist Etienne Quartey-Papafio said about the song in a statement. “It’s about dealing with break-ups, not in the sense of missing a relationship or a person, but ‘am I doing this right?’ It seems loving while being neurodivergent (ADHD) doesn’t follow the same rules, because I tend to fall in love with other neurodivergent people.”

“I was intrigued to immerse myself into someone else’s art,” Dottie added. “I love how sweet the two vocals sound together, especially when the lyrics have a soft sadness to them.”

Along with Quartey-Papafio, Whitelands is Jagun Meseorisa on drums, Michael Adelaja on guitar, and Vanessa Govinden on bass. The melodramatic LP title comes from Kahlil Gibran’s 1923 book The Prophet.

“The full quote is ‘the owl whose night-bound eyes are blind unto the day cannot unveil the mystery of light,’” Quartey-Papafio explained. “It encapsulates the feeling of the album. A theme running through the songs is lots of ‘I,’ ‘you,’ sense and emotion. Very physical and intimate settings. Lots of descriptors of light, celestial bodies, water, Biblical stuff, abstract stuff. I don’t really know why I write things the way I do, but I do tend to write emotions as anything other than what they actually are.”

Hear “Tell Me About It” below.

TRACKLIST:
01 “Setting Sun”
02 “The Prophet & I”
03 “Cheer”
04 “Tell Me About It”
05 “How It Feels”
06 “Chosen Light”
07 “Born In Understanding”
08 “Now Here’s The Weather”

TOUR:
02/03 – Bedford @ Esquires*
02/16 – Brighton @ Dome~
02/17 – London @ Eventim Apollo~
02/18 – Birmingham @ O2 Institute~
02/19 – Norwich @ UEA~
02/21 – Liverpool @ O2 Academy~
02/22 – Newcastle @ NX~
02/23 – Glasgow @ Barrowland~
02/24 – Edinburgh @ Liquid Room~
02/26 – Cardiff @ University~
02/27 – Manchester @ Academy~
02/28 – Nottingham @ Rough Trade
03/04 – Bristol @ Rough Trade
03/05 – London @ Rough Trade East

* with English Teacher
~ with Slowdive

Night-bound Eyes Are Blind To The Day is out 2/23 on Sonic Cathedral.