Liverpool’s Novelty Island (aka Tom McConnell) are delighted to announce their new album Jigsaw Causeway, set for release on 3rd October 2025 via Liverpool independent labels 9×9 Records (vinyl) and Ripe Records (digital).
Inspired by the fuzzed-out, woozy production of Grandaddy, Beck and Boards of Canada, Jigsaw Causeway is a darker collection of surreal, melancholic lo-fi pop songs than previous NI releases.
As with the rest of his back catalogue, the new album will feature McConnell’s artwork in a range of styles, from papier-mâché sculptures, to lo-fi animation and claymation, this time accompanied by his first gallery exhibition inspired by the songs. These works will also feature on the artwork for the singles and the album sleeve, which is made from over 50,000 jigsaw pieces.
To celebrate the album news, new single ‘Rainy’ came out on 30th April 2025 via Ripe Records, available to stream now on all good digital service providers.
Commenting on the track, McConnell says: “Rainy is another celebration of bad weather. It’s a big jangly love song drenched in stompy, shimmering Rickenbackers inspired by Oasis and Big Star. It’s another ‘jigsaw’ song which pieces together a guitar riff with a separate tune that was originally a slower ballad…”
Composed by utilising fragments of music in a variety of combinations, pieced together like a jigsaw, the album began life in early 2024 in the unlikely setting of Aberhosan, Wales. Drum and guitar tracks were put to tape on a very heavy cassette recorder, surrounded by sheep. These tracks then travelled—via a room overflowing with keyboards in Oxford—to Kippax in Yorkshire, at the invitation of Britain’s oldest mining brass band (The Kippax Band), and finally to McConnell’s home studio in Liverpool.
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