Black Marble Unveils New Album ‘Life in Small Spaces’ with “Jim Carol New Year”
Black Marble, photo by Ashley Leahy
Black Marble has announced his fifth studio album, Life in Small Spaces. Set to release on Aug. 21 via Sacred Bones, Chris Stewart’s first release since 2021’s Fast Idol pushes his cold-wave in eclectic new directions to frame his grappling with the music industry and the philosophical perspectives needed for creative survival. To preview the set, he’s shared the lead single “Jim Carol New Year,” coupled with a music video directed by Clayton Hunt.
“I always knew a lot of people in music struggled to make ends meet, but it surprised me to learn that the people you thought would be doing well often weren’t,” Stewart reflected on the album’s central themes. “For me, seeing the business from the inside like that changed how I looked at things. When I looked up to see a new artist on a billboard, I started to wonder, will I one day have to pretend to be something I’m not, in order to succeed? The life of an artist goes on after your moment ends, you know? So who do you want to be in the end and how do you want to be seen by the people that know you?
“I made Life In Small Spaces while thinking about that, and for me, it serves as my own ideal for living an artistic life. I’m doing it as a vocation, not some last-ditch effort to escape to some other world. I made this record not only as a way of saying that, but as a way of saying it’s ok to feel that way. It’s ok for people to sacrifice some degree of creature comfort in order to live a life you believe in. And it doesn’t have to be an endless search for something just out of reach, it can be a permanent way of being and something that sustains you.”
On “Jim Carol New Year,” Stewart injects material concern in the echo of “I forgot my money,” but those stakes are nothing next to his transfixing higher yearning for freedom. There’s a lot of life writhing in impassioned vocals that just break through his former distant recitations, crunched live drum loops and his dependable waves of synth nostalgia. While his new critical slant gives the song a gripping direction, Stewart doesn’t sacrifice any of his obscure intimacy as he turns his gaze outwards.
Life in Small Spaces is available to pre-order now. Watch the music video for “Jim Carol New Year” below and read on for the album’s full tracklist.
Life in Small Spaces – Black Marble:
1. It Always Comes to Me
2. Jim Carol New Year
3. Anything
4. Get Back Up
5. Other Man’s Dream
6. Guess
7. Life Without
8. Missing History
9. Panopticon Calls
10. Picture When
11. Sonny Boy
