Joan Armatrading, one of the UK’s most enduring and quietly revolutionary singer-songwriters, is back with a new album—’How Did This Happen And What Does It Now Mean’—dropping November 22nd via BMG. The record, like much of her recent work, is pure Armatrading: self-made, self-produced, self-engineered—every beat and note a testament to her refusal to conform, her steady hand still shaping the narrative of her music after all these years.
Leading the way, with one of the album’s most ear-catching lyrics, is the single ‘I’m Not Moving,’ a set of words that Joan was immediately compelled to write after witnessing some alarmingly confrontational public behaviour.
“He was like ‘I’m going to kill everybody! I’m not moving! You can get the police! You can’t move me!’ All the lyrics just flowed, in one, and I knew it had to have an aggression, because that’s how he was. I did a version of it that was a little bit milder, but you could tell that wasn’t it.” – Joan Armatrading
The track comes alive with a new video that captures Armatrading’s sentiment when she wrote the song—two people locked in their own standoffs, unyielding, their stubbornness a quiet rebellion. The video features a cameo appearance by Armatrading.
The 12-track album is another bold stroke in a catalogue that kicked off in 1972 with ‘Whatever’s For Us’, the record that put Joan Armatrading on the map and lit the fuse for a career that’s earned her MBE and CBE honors, Ivor Novello and BASCA Gold Badge Awards, BRIT and Grammy nods, and more honorary degrees than anyone could count. But it’s not just about the accolades—it’s the way a new generation of artists like Little Simz, Laura Mvula, and Arlo Parks have picked up the thread, weaving her influence into their own music, keeping Joan’s legacy alive and thriving in real time.
Armatrading has spoken about the title of the new album.
“You can apply it to just about anything,’How did this happen and what does it now mean?’,” she says. “We are in such a weird place at the moment, and you do think, how did this happen? Some of the things we’re going through, and some of the things we can say and can’t say, and can and can’t do – how on earth do we get to this place, and what does it now mean? Where are we going to go now? It applies to all kinds of things. It’s like asking a question that you can’t answer.”
Stream ‘I’m not moving’ HERE.
