Shura - I Got Too Sad For My Friends (2025)

British singer-songwriter and producer Shura announces her long-awaited return with new album I Got Too Sad For My Friends, released on May 30 via Play It Again Sam, and shares the first single "Recognise". It marks her first taste of music since 2019’s critically acclaimed album forevher.

"Recognise" is the linchpin between this album and Shura’s previous work, which contains the lesson learned over the last six years of uncertainty. It opens with a celestial whirl of synths and soft, almost will-o-the-wisp vocals, before bursting into an unexpected bloom of frenetic drums. Lyrically it plays with artistic identity and the selfishness of dreams (“All this time I've been dreaming / Is it selfish? I'm not sure”), before settling on the fact that life is unpredictable, and simply being alive is enough.

Shura says of "Recognise": “Arthur Russell sang 'being sad is not a crime' and yet somehow when I went through a period of despair in January I felt that the best course of action was to hide myself away from the world. I think Recognise is a song about coming out the other side of that feeling. Slowly coming to the understanding that everything is ok. And that ok - is good. That I can sit quietly, read a book, sip a coffee and deeply appreciate being here and everything that has happened and has yet to happen…”

Across the last decade, Shura has achieved critical acclaim and a devoted fanbase with the brooding synth-pop of her 2016 debut, Nothing’s Real, a coming-of-age debut which captured the intensity of young heartbreak and queerness, and the aforementioned forevher (2019), which explored the euphoria of love and connection with its soulful and expansive bounce. She has performed at some of the biggest festivals in the world including Glastonbury, Primavera Sound and Coachella, sold-out historic London venues such as The Roundhouse, Koko and Kentish Town Forum and supported the likes of Tegan and Sara and M83 on tour. She’s collaborated with an esteemed and eclectic array of artists including Mura Masa, Tracey Thorn, Rosie Lowe, with remixors re-interpreting her music from Four Tet, Tourist, Warpaint, Jungle, Factory Floor, Prins Thomas and Lindstrom and Jono Ma. Shura’s global streams stand at over 200 million and her music has been used in TV phenomenons like Heartstopper and Sex Education.

TRACKLIST

1. Shura - Tokyo
2. Shura - Leonard Street
3. Shura - Recognise
4. Shura - World's Worst Girlfriend
5. Shura - Richardson (feat. Cassandra Jenkins)
6. Shura - America
7. Shura - Online
8. Shura - I Wanna Be Loved By You
9. Shura - Ringpull
10. Shura - If You Don't Believe In Love (feat. Helado Negro)
11. Shura - Bad Kid (feat. Becca Mancari)