Athlete Album Coming In February

11/12/09 2:59pm

by Kate Harper (CHARTattack)

British indie rockers Athlete will release their fourth studio album, Black Swan, on Feb. 2.

The disc, which came out in August in the U.K., is the follow-up to 2007's Beyond The Neighbourhood. The Tom Rothrock-produced (Elliott Smith, Foo Fighters) album is named after author Nassim Nicholas Taleb's book The Black Swan, which theorizes lives are comprised of "good and bad shocks."

"That's exactly how our journey has been over the last six years," singer/guitarist Joel Pott says. "We've had lots of unexpected highs and lows, as a band and as people."

You can hear samples of "Black Swan Song" and "Superhuman Touch" on Athlete's MySpace page.

Pott formed Athlete in 1999 with bassist/singer Carey Willetts, drummer/singer Stephen Roberts and keyboardist/singer Tim Wanstall. They released their Mercury Music Prize short-listed Vehicles & Animals debut in 2002 and their 2004 Tourist sophomore album hit #1 on the U.K. album charts.

You can see Athlete here:

Nov. 21 Southampton, England @ Southampton University Students Union
Dec. 4 Bristol, England @ Anson Rooms
Dec. 5 Glasgow, Scotland @ ABC
Dec. 6 Manchester, England @ Ritz Manchester
Dec. 8-9 London, England @ O2 Shepherds Bush Empire
Dec. 10 Wolverhampton, England @ Wulfrun Hall

Here are the songs on Black Swan:

"Superhuman Touch"
"The Getaway"
"Black Swan Song"
"Don't Hold Your Breath"
"Love Come Rescue"
"Light The Way"
"The Unknown"
"The Awkward Goodbye"
"Magical Mistakes"
"Rubik's Cube"