Sister John return with new full-length album Don’t Worry, It’s Forever in May 2025. Released by Last Night From Glasgow, the album follows on from the band’s triumphant I Am By Day in 2021. Don’t Worry, It’s Forever is an in-time description of love amidst loss, how it feels to straddle generations and contemplate the remains of identity as time moves on. The arrangements are raw, the melodies direct, the lyrics personal, rooted in connection and memory, and in loss and what to do about it. Lead songwriter Amanda McKeown describes the 15-track album:
“There’s impending grief, shimmering nostalgia and, amidst doubt and difficulty, hope and friendship. Conceptually the album follows a single thought, captured in the title, and is bookended by Another Trip Around and Just Do It Anyway, anchoring the album in mid-life reflection, empathy, and resolve.
Sonically it’s a sister album to our debut Returned From Sea, featuring integral string arrangements and drawing on our full multi-instrumental repertoire, this time referencing the soundscapes we have explored over our two intervening albums. Inspiration has come from the English folk of Bagpuss, the dreamworld of your fairy godmother, and the blues of the Stones transported to the Nile Delta.”
Sister John is a band of four multi-instrumentalists from Glasgow, they are Amanda McKeown, Jonathan Lilley, Sophie Pragnell and Heather Phillips. Their debut album Returned From Sea was released in 2017. With barely a pause, their much anticipated eponymous second album was released in January 2019. Third album I Am By Day followed in 2021. The band have played alongside some of Scotland’s finest musicians including The Bathers and The Bluebells.
Don’t Worry, It’s Forever is released on two shades of vinyl pressed at Seabass in Scotland, as well as CD. No digital singles will be released throughout this album campaign. Instead, different radio DJs have been given tracks to premiere. This began in early February with exclusive plays from Amy Lamé on BBC 6 Music plus Billy Sloan and Roddy Hart on BBC Radio Scotland. Sister John launches the album with a three-night residency at Glasgow’s Old Hairdressers from 30 May to 1 June.