Liverpool’s NOVELTY ISLAND Reveal New Single ‘Foam Animals’
Watch the visualiser - https://youtu.be/KpJuQctDJFo
Stream and share - https://ffm.to/noveltyisland
Announce Winter 2025 UK Headline Tour Dates
Tickets - https://www.novelty-island.com/live
New Album Jigsaw Causeway Released 3rd October 2025 via 9x9 Records
Preorder - https://www.9x9records.co.uk/shop
Liverpool’s Novelty Island (aka Tom McConnell) are pleased to reveal new single ‘Foam Animals’, set for digital release on 18th June 2025 via Ripe Records.
The track is the latest to be taken from their forthcoming new album, Jigsaw Causeway, set for release on 3rd October 2025 via Liverpool independent labels 9x9 Records (vinyl) and Ripe Records (digital).
The single comes with the announcement of a run of Winter 2025 UK headline tour dates at the end of 2025 to celebrate the release of the new album, with tickets on sale now (see below for listings).
Commenting on the new track, McConnell says: “Foam Animals are the colour of old sweets and they don’t know why they’re here. They live in a little lo-fi garden inspired by Beck, Ram-era Paul McCartney and 90s gameboy games, but the sky is falling down and it’s filling up with water…”
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.
Lead single ‘Rainy’ was released earlier this spring, with radio play from Chris Hawkins at BBC Radio 6Music and a swathe of underground tastemaker support from Soundsphere Magazine, Maximum Volume Music and more.
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.
Further album details and live dates will be announced over the coming months.
UK Headline Tour Dates:
OCT 25TH - LIVERPOOL - THE BLUECOAT
NOV 07TH - STOKE - THE ARTISAN TAP (w/ The Orange Alert)
NOV 08TH - NEWCASTLE - THE COMMON ROOM
DEC 04TH - LEEDS - HYDE PARK BOOK CLUB
DEC 05TH - MANCHESTER - THE CASTLE HOTEL
DEC 11TH - BIRMINGHAM - HARE & HOUNDS
DEC 13TH - LONDON - THE VICTORIA
Tickets - https://www.novelty-island.com/live
Jigsaw Causeway album tracklist:
Jigsaw Causeway
Northern Nowhere
Someone Disappearing
Foam Animals
Apollo
Floating
The Only Train Driver In England
An Orange Goodbye
Novelty Island online:
https://www.novelty-island.com
https://www.instagram.com/_noveltyisland
https://www.tiktok.com/@noveltyisland
https://www.facebook.com/noveltyisland
https://www.youtube.com/@NoveltyIsland
https://www.patreon.com/c/noveltyisland
https://noveltyisland.bandcamp.com
More info:
Novelty Island began at Abbey Road in 2019 while McConnell was studying at Abbey Road Institute. They released 2 EPs in 2020 and recorded songs for their first two albums, How Are You Coping With This Century? and Wallsend Weekend Television, at Abbey Road's Studio 2 and Studio 3, RAK and Damon Albarn's Studio 13.
Both albums were released on Think Like A Key (USA/Worldwide) and 9X9 Records (UK) on CD / Vinyl / Cassette. These releases, along with the 2024 Taped Over EP, have received great support from BBC 6Music, BBC Introducing, Absolute Radio, Shindig, Tim's Twitter Listening Party, MOJO Magazine, The Line of Best Fit, RnR, The Fader, NARC, Bandcamp and more.
The Novelty Island live band have performed at Glastonbury, Moseley Folk Festival, and Sound City Liverpool. Their surreal prop-filled show has taken them on multiple headline tours with sell-out hometown Liverpool shows and support slots with Sea Power, The Pale White, Scott Lavene, The Dream Machine, Trudy & The Romance, Demob Happy, High Llamas and Wesley Gonzalez. In 2023, McConnell toured Novelty Island as a solo act with an animated TV supporting China Crisis and joined the Outsider Artists agency roster.
Prior to Novelty Island, McConnell's TV ME and Tom Low projects toured supported Mercury-nominee C Duncan, BC Camplight and Flyte, performed at Green Man Festival and worked with Deltasonic Records and Bill Ryder-Jones. A Tom Low-released EP recorded entirely on a phone received critical acclaim from CLASH, Bido Lito, and BBC 6 Music.
Before these projects, McConnell performed under his own name, supporting legendary acts around the UK like Squeeze, Glenn Tilbrook, Ian McCulloch & lan Brodie, Steve Cradock and China Crisis among many others. He was also endorsed by Hofner Guitars and shared online by Paul McCartney's official social media channels.
Listen To Lead Single ‘Rainy’ Out Now
Stream and share - https://ditto.fm/rainy-novelty-island
Download With Exclusive Bandcamp B-Side ‘Blood Pressure Music’
https://noveltyisland.bandcamp.com/album/rainy-single
