Belly Prep First LP in 23 Years, Release New Song ‘Shiny One’

Belly will release their first LP in 23 years, Dove, on May 4th. The alt-rock quartet previewed the album with new single, “Shiny One.” Tanya Donelly belts through the synth-y haze: “Call my fallen angel/ When the call comes, you answer it/ When the call comes, you answer it for me/ Don’t forget who you come from, son.”

Donelly wrote about her deep “affection” for “Shiny One,” which is also the band’s first completely collaborative song, she said. “Gail wrote the riff and the chorus; Tom and I wrote the verse and bridge; Chris’s parts shaped the direction and vibe,” she added. “When I hear it, I hear all four of us equally.” The song is available as an instant download with pre-orders of Dove.

Donelly, a former member of Throwing Muses and Breeders, formed Belly in 1991. Two years later, the band issued their acclaimed debut album, Star, which earned Grammy nods for Best Alternative Music Album and Best New Artist. The group released a second album, 1995’s King, before dissolving the next year. The quartet – Donelly, guitarist Tom Gorman, drummer Chris Gorman, bassist Gail Greenwood – reunited for a run of U.S. and U.K. shows in 2016, building to conversations about returning to the studio.

“We had just gotten to the point where we were just missing each other, and missing the music,” Donelly said in a statement. “The music I’ve been doing in the past several years has been very collaborative, which made me kind of homesick for Belly; I missed that sense of having a band.”

After a series of collaborative writing sessions, which often involved sending snippets and demos through email, they recorded Dove, with Gorman recording and producing alongside Paul Q. Kolderie (Hole, Radiohead).

Belly will kick off their first major tour since 1995 this summer. After a May 26th spot at Boston Calling festival, their U.K. leg launches June 9th in Portsmouth, U.K. and concludes on the 20th in London; a U.S. jaunt begins August 8th in L.A. and wraps October 6th in Chicago.