Resurgent Folk Icon Labi Siffre Announces First New Album In 28 Years, Performs Rare Live Set For BBC

Labi Siffre, a UK folk musician influenced by soul and jazz, has had a fascinating career. Over the decades, Siffre has only intermittently been active — a cluster of solo albums in the early '70s, a few more in the '80s and '90s. A few of Siffre's songs have been UK hits, like "It Must Be Love," which reached the top 20 in 1972 and later became a hit for Madness, or like the anti-apartheid protest song "(Something Inside) So Strong," which reached #4 in 1987. Dr. Dre sampled Siffre's "I Got The..." on Eminem's "My Name Is," and Kanye West sampled his "My Song" on "I Wonder." Siffre is now 80, and he's back in the public eye, thanks in part to TikTok. He's also getting ready to release his first album in more than a quarter century.

As with any such story, it's hard to pinpoint exactly how Gen Z discovered Labi Siffre, though it could've had something to do with his 1972 UK hit "Crying, Laughing, Loving, Lying" appearing in The Holdovers a couple of years ago. In 2024, Miley Cyrus covered that song at LA's Chateau Marmont, and mxmtoon covered it for Track Star. That same year, someone launched official YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok channels for Siffre's music, and new interviews and restored videos showed up on those platforms. Last fall, there was a new Siffre Best Of collection. In April, his Crying, Laughing, Loving, Lying album will get a limited reissue for Record Store Day UK.

Today, Labi Siffre announced Far Away, his first new album in 28 years. In recent years, Siffre hasn't been completely inactive; he released a single called "(Love Is Love Is Love) Why Isn't Love Enough?" in 2020. Still, this feels like a major return. We don't have a release date or album details yet, but Siffre has shared a new single called "Far Away." It's a grand, soothing piano ballad. His voice sounds frankly incredible. Check out the song's Luke McMahon-directed video below.

As part of the album rollout, Labi Siffre also did a rare live performance in the BBC Radio 2 Piano room, with the BBC Radio Orchestra backing him up. (As it happens, Celeste covered his song "Bless This Telephone" in her own Piano Room session last year.) At least according to Setlist.fm, Siffre almost never performs life. That must be a personal decision, since he certainly can do it. In that session, Siffre sang his new single "Far Away" and his old one "My Song," and he also covered the Four Tops' classic "Baby I Need Your Loving." Watch some clips below.