Ride’s Andy Bell Announces Debut Solo Album, Shares Video for New Song: Watch

Ride’s Andy Bell has announced his first-ever solo album. The View From Halfway Down arrives October 9 via Sonic Cathedral. Ahead of the LP, Bell has shared lead single “Love Comes in Waves” along with a trippy visual directed by Chris Tomsett. The new album will be available in CD and standard vinyl formats, as well as limited white and blue splatter vinyl only available via Bandcamp. Check out the video for “Love Comes in Waves” below, and scroll down for the LP tracklist and album art.

The View From Halfway Down was created over the course of the past four years and finished during quarantine (it was initially inspired by the death of David Bowie in 2016). “I’ve always wanted to make a solo album,” Bell said in a press release. He added: “I’ve always said I would do it, although I never imagined it happening like, or sounding like, this one does. I’d been sitting on this pile of almost finished tracks, along with all the other hundreds of ideas that had fallen by the wayside since I’ve been making music. Lockdown gave me the opportunity to find a way to present it to the world.” Bell continues:

The album is not about songwriting. There aren’t many verses or choruses, because this album is about sounds, a listening experience.

The poem describes someone committing suicide by jumping to their death and the regret the protagonist experiences when he sees ‘the view from halfway down’. Although, of course, it’s too late to change what’s going to happen. I read this poem as having a message of suicide prevention: if you could see the view from halfway down, you would never go through with anything that would end your life. I’ve never been suicidal, but I felt really moved by this brilliant poem when I watched the show during Ride’s US tour in Autumn 2019. It’s an incredible message.

There was a small kind of a parallel with me, sitting at home in London in March 2020. In the early stages of lockdown, you could feel the tension in the air, causing what felt like a global panic attack. But, in common with what I’ve heard from others who can experience anxiety for no reason in their everyday lives, I felt strangely calm in the midst of all of this, seeing things in my life very clearly. Such clarity allowed me to finally compile this record. In a way, to see my life flash before me and be able to curate moments of it into a 40-minute listening experience, then find a title that would fit. I also got a lot of DIY done.

My upcoming 50th brought everything more sharply into focus. If you imagine that my entire life was a freefall jump to my death, and you were feeling optimistic about me reaching 100 like my Gran did and getting a telegram from the Queen, this album would be ‘the view from halfway down’.

The View From Halfway Down:

01 Love Comes in Waves
02 Indica
03 Ghost Tones
04 Skywalker
05 Aubrey Drylands Gladwell
06 Cherry Cola
07 I Was Alone
08 Heat Haze on Weyland Road