Willie J Healey has announced his new album, Lucky, for release on 12th March 2027 via V2, alongside a run of UK headline tour dates, as well as the release of the new album’s lead single, Benjamin. This is the Oxford singer/songwriter’s first full-length since 2023’s outing Bunny. Working more acoustically here, and with a tight-knit circle of friends accompanying him on the road to the album’s emergence, has been largely steeped in the idea of creating something candid and more personal than he has previously. The album can be preordered here.
Healey believes the core of the album is rooted in his understanding that he is more established as a person now, and there is more life to look back on and feel inspired by. Personal themes criss-cross with big ideas: life, death, God, religion; he says he feels in the “fortunate enough position to laugh at some of it. There’s a kind of life clarity there that I think I feel really lucky to have had when I was writing the songs.”
Of the return and the single, Healey says, “It felt good for me to get back to some real deal stuff. I really sat down and worked through everything on an acoustic guitar, feelings too, which is why most of the songs have very little electric guitar on them. I moved house and live by a park now. I set up my studio in the back of the house and wrote most of the songs in that little room, pretty isolated in a nice way. I wrote Benjamin really quickly; it was one of those gifts. Just came right to me! We tracked all of these acoustic guitars, and I did this big gasp at the beginning because I think the song kinda feels like somebody who’s asking to be saved by whatever’s out there saving things. It’s got this hopeful desperation thing going on. There’s nothing too fancy about the recordings we got, which I’m very happy about. I felt slightly caught up in making things slick – I didn’t want to do that this time. I couldn’t be bothered. To me, it feels direct and simple! Which is weirdly hard to do sometimes.”
You can get your tickets to any of the dateshere.
“Lucky” Tracklisting:
1. Burn Burn Burn
2. Silver Birds
3. Something Good
4. Long Way Round
5. Benjamin
6. Yesterday’s News
7. Oh, I’m Trippin’
8. I Should’ve Known
9. Fifteen Dogs
10. I Want You Now
Willie J Healey UK tour dates 2027:
Sat Apr 10 – The Cavern, Exeter, UK
Sun Apr 11 – The Globe, Cardiff, UK
Mon Apr 12 – KOLA, Portsmouth, UK
Wed Apr 14 – O2 Academy, Oxford, UK
Thu Apr 15– Arts Centre, Norwich, UK
Fri Apr 16 – Future Yard, Birkenhead, UK
Sat Apr 17 – King Tut’s, Glasgow, UK
Mon Apr 19 – The Foundry, Sheffield, UK
Tue Apr 20 – Parish, Huddersfield, UK
Wed Apr 21 – Band on the Wall, Manchester, UK
Fri Apr 23 – Brudenell Social Club, Leeds, UK
Sat Apr 24 – The Trades Club, Hebden Bridge, UK
Sun Apr 25– Rescue Rooms, Nottingham, UK
Tue Apr 27 – Castle & Falcon, Birmingham, UK
Wed Apr 28– KOKO, London, UK
Thu Apr 29– Electric, Bristol, UK
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