In 2021, Public Service Broadcast released their latest album Bright Magic. On Monday, the London post-rock band announced its follow-up, The Last Flight, and unveiled the astonishing lead single “Electra.”

The Last Flight centers on Amelia Earhart’s famous round-the-world journey in 1937 that ended in her disappearance. The LP features Andreya Casablanca, This Is The Kit, and EERA. “The song is about Amelia Earhart’s plane, the marvellously named Electra,” the group explained. “To match the name, the vibrancy and the excitement of the aircraft, the track is full of pulsing electronics and interlocking, percussive melody lines, plus pace.” About the album, J. Willgoose Esq. explained:

I wanted to do a woman-focused story, because most of the archive we have access to is overwhelmingly male. I was initially drawn in by Earhart’s final fight, rather than the successes that she had, but the more I read the more I became fascinated by her. Her bravery and her aeronautical achievements were extraordinary, but her philosophy and the dignity that she had… she was an outstanding person.

The final flight is the spine of the journey: the story jumps off at different points, and examines different facets of her personality, her relationship with her husband, her attitude to flying, her attitude to existing. She gave herself, I think, less than a 50% chance of survival when she flew the Atlantic alone. To put yourself, willingly, in those situations… I think it says something about that drive at the heart of humanity.

However The Last Flight isn’t doom-laden or covered in grief. There’s adventure, freedom, the joy of being alive. The reason why she wanted to fly was to find the beauty in living — ‘to know the reason why I’m alive, and to feel that every minute.’ The flight did fail, but she was right. Of all the people we’ve written about, I have the deepest respect and admiration for her.

Hear “Electra” below.

TRACKLIST:
01 “I Was Always Dreaming”
02 “Towards The Dawn”
03 “The Fun Of It” (Feat. Andreya Casablanca)
04 “The South Atlantic” (Feat. This Is The Kit)
05 “Electra”
06 “Arabian Flight”
07 “Monsoons”
08 “A Different Kind Of Love” (Feat. EERA)
09 “Howland”

The Last Flight is out 10/4 on So Recordings.